Jeremiah 5:1-17

1The Lord said, ‘Run along all the streets of Jerusalem. Look carefully all around you. Look in all the public places of the city. Try to find one person who is honest. Try to find one person who wants to know the truth. If you find one person like that, I will forgive all the people in the city.

2They make promises and they say, “I will do it, as surely as the Lord lives.” But what they say is all lies.’

3Lord, you want people to be honest and true. You have punished your people, but they did not feel any pain. You nearly destroyed them, but they still refuse to change. Their minds have become as hard as rock. They refuse to turn back to you.

4I thought, ‘These are poor, foolish people. They do not understand what the Lord wants them to do. They do not know his commands.

5So I will go to speak to the leaders. They will surely understand what the Lord wants. They will know his commands.’ But all of them have turned against the Lord too. They refuse to obey his authority.

6So lions will come out of the forest to attack them. Wolves will come from the desert to destroy them. Leopards will wait outside their cities. They will kill anyone who goes outside. That will happen because the people have turned against the Lord. They have done many bad things.

7The Lord said, ‘Jerusalem, I have to punish you. Your people have turned away from me. They have served gods that are not true gods. I gave them everything that they needed. But they left me, like a wife who leaves her husband. The men hurry to the houses of prostitutes.

8They are like strong male horses. They cannot wait to have sex with another man's wife.’

9The Lord says this: ‘I must punish them for what they have done. I will pay back this wicked nation for their sins.’

10The Lord says this to Judah's enemies: ‘March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah, and destroy the vines. But do not destroy them completely. Pull the branches from the trees. Do this, because these people do not belong to the Lord.

11The people of Israel and Judah have turned against me.

12They have told lies about the Lord. They have said, “He will not punish us! No trouble will come to us. There will be no war. There will be no famine.

13The prophets speak empty words. They do not speak the Lord's messages. The troubles that they talk about should happen to them, not us!” ’

14Because of that, the Lord God Almighty said to me, ‘That is what the people are saying. So I will give you a strong message to speak to them. It will be like fire that comes out of your mouth. And the people will burn like wood in that fire.’

15The Lord says this: ‘Listen to me, you people of Israel. I will bring an army to attack you. They will come from a nation that is far away. It is a strong nation that started long ago. You do not know their language. You cannot understand what they say.

16They are all brave soldiers. They shoot arrows that will kill you.

17They will eat all the crops in your fields and the food that you have stored. They will take your sons and your daughters for themselves. They will kill your sheep and your cows for food. They will eat all your grapes and your figs. They will attack your strong cities where you thought you would be safe. Their soldiers will knock down the walls.’