EasyEnglish Bible 2018
Jeremiah 5:2
2They make promises and they say, “I will do it, as surely as the Lord lives.” But what they say is all lies.’
Jeremiah 5:2 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)And though they say, The Lord liveth; surely they swear falsely.
- New International Version (NIV)Although they say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ still they are swearing falsely.”
- English Standard Version (ESV)Though they say, "As the Lord lives," yet they swear falsely.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Though they say, ‘As the Lord lives,’ Surely they swear falsely.”
Context of Jeremiah 5:2
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. They 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.
Read all of Jeremiah 5Jeremiah 5:2 word by word
וְאִ֥ם חַי־יְהֹוָ֖ה יֹאמֵ֑רוּ לָכֵ֥ן לַשֶּׁ֖קֶר יִשָּׁבֵֽעוּ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Jeremiah 5:2
- Jeremiah 4:2You must be honest and do what is right. You must do what you promise to do. You can show that your promise is true when you add, “As surely as the Lord is alive.” Then other nations will see that I have blessed you. They will pray that I will bless them too. and they will praise me.’
- Jeremiah 7:9You rob people. You murder people. You have sex with someone else's wife or husband. You tell lies in court when you have promised to tell the truth. You offer sacrifices to the false god, Baal. You serve other gods that you never knew before.
- Leviticus 19:12You must not use the name of your God to say a promise. This will make my name unclean. I am the Lord.
- Isaiah 48:1Listen to this, family of Jacob. You are called ‘Israel’, and you are Judah's descendants. You use the name of the Lord when you make promises. You pray to Israel's God. But you do not do those things honestly and fairly.
- Hosea 4:1Israelites, listen to the Lord's message! The Lord accuses the people who live in Israel of these bad things: ‘Nobody in the land of Israel is faithful. They have no true love. They do not want to know God.
- Hosea 10:4They promise to do many things, but they never do what they promise. They make useless agreements. So people accuse each other in the courts. They are like weeds that grow in a farmer's field.
- Zechariah 5:3Then the angel said to me, ‘The words on the paper tell about bad events for the whole earth. This will be in future years. On one side of the paper, it says that a man must not rob anyone. If he does, people will send him away from his own country. On the other side of the paper, it says that a man must not speak false words. If he does, people will send him away from his own country.
- Malachi 3:5At that time, I will come among you as your judge. I will speak clearly against those who have done wrong things. I will punish the magicians, the adulterers and those who tell lies against other people. I will punish those people who are cruel to their workers, or they deceive widows or children who have no family. And I will punish those who do not help foreigners who live among them. People who do those things show that they do not respect me.’ That is what the Lord Almighty says.
- 1 Timothy 1:10people who have sex in a wrong way; men who have sex with other men; people who catch other people to sell them; people who tell lies; people who do not speak the truth in court; people who do any wrong things that are against God's true message.
- 2 Timothy 3:5Those people will seem to be serving God. But really they refuse to accept God's power to help them. You must stay away from people like that.
Commentaries on Jeremiah 5:2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 2The Lord liveth - Though they profess to bind themselves by Jehovah, as if they acknowledged him their God and only Lord, yet they swore falsely; for not believing in him, they took a false oath; one by which they did not believe themselves bound, not acknowledging him as their Lord. See on Jeremiah 4:2; (note).Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 2Though they take the most binding form of oath, they do so only as a means of deceiving others.Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 1-2A just person follows God's laws and treats others fairly. An honest person is reliable, truthful, and loyal to God. Jeremiah found neither justice nor honesty. Although some people were under oath, their claims of innocence were false. Their actions showed they had lied under oath (Genesis 4:2; 7:9; Genesis 18:23–32; Isaiah 48:1; Ezekiel 22:30; Titus 1:15–16).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 22. (Tit 1:16). swear falsely--not a judicial oath; but their profession of the worship of Jehovah is insincere (Jr 5:7; Jr 4:2). The reformation under Josiah was merely superficial in the case of the majority.Read the comment
Topics related to Jeremiah 5:2
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Jeremiah 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
EasyEnglish Bible 2018 — Copyright © MissionAssist 2018
Commentaries