Jeremiah 5:14-31 - Coming Judgment

¹⁴ Wherefore thus sayeth the LORD God of Hosts, "Because ye speak such words, behold: The words that are in thy mouth will I turn to fire, and make the people to be wood, that it may consume them. ¹⁵ Lo, I will bring a people upon you from far, O house of Israel, sayeth the LORD; a mighty people, an old people, a people whose speech thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. ¹⁶ Their arrows are sudden death; yea, they themselves be very giants. ¹⁷ This people shall eat up thy fruit and thy meat; yea, they shall devour thy sons and thy daughters, thy sheep and thy bullocks. They shall eat up thy grapes and figs. As for thy strong and well-fenced cities, wherein thou didst trust, they shall destroy them with the sword.

¹⁸ Nevertheless, I will not then have done with you, sayeth the LORD. ¹⁹ But if they say, 'Wherefore doth the LORD our God all this unto us?' Then answer them, 'Because, that like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your own land, even so shall ye serve other gods also in a strange land!'" ²⁰ Preach this unto the house of Jacob, and cry it out in Judah, and say thus,

²¹ "Hear this, thou foolish and indiscreet people: ye have eyes, but ye see not; ears have ye, but ye hear not. ²² Fear ye not me, sayeth the LORD? Are ye not ashamed, to look me in the face? Which bind the sea with the sand, so that it cannot pass his bounds: for though it rage, yet can it do nothing; and though the waves thereof do swell, yet may they not go over. ²³ But this people hath a false and an obstinate heart, they are departed and gone away from me. ²⁴ They think not in their hearts, 'O let us fear the LORD our God, that giveth us rain, early and late, when need is: which keepeth ever still the harvest for us yearly.' ²⁵ "Nevertheless, your misdeeds have turned these from you, and your sins have robbed you hereof. ²⁶ For among my people are found wicked persons, that privily lay snares and wait for me, to take them and destroy them. ²⁷ And like as a net is full of birds, so are their houses full of that which they have gotten with falsity and deceit. Hereof cometh their great substance and riches, ²⁸ hereof are they fat and wealthy, and are run away from me with shameful blasphemies. They minister not the law, they make no end of the fatherless cause, they judge not the poor according to equity. ²⁹ Should I not punish these things, sayeth the LORD? Should I not be avenged of all such people as these be?"

³⁰ Horrible and grievous things are done in the land. ³¹ The Prophets teach falsely, and the priests follow them, and my people hath pleasure therein. What will come thereof at the last?