Jeremiah 5:1-9

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.’