Jeremiah 5:1-13 - The Depravity Of Jerusalem

¹ "Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, and look please, and take note, and search at its public squares, if you can find a person [who] does justice, [who] seeks honesty, so that I may forgive it. ² And though they say, '{As Yahweh lives},' {therefore} they swear falsely." ³ Yahweh, do not your eyes [look] for honesty? You have struck them, but they felt no pain, you have destroyed them, they refused to take discipline. They have hardened their faces more than rock, they have refused to turn back.

⁴ Then I said, "[They are] just simple people, they are foolish, for they know not the way of Yahweh, the law of their God. ⁵ Let me go to the great, and let me speak with them, for they know the way of Yahweh, the law of their God." However, they together have broken [the] yoke, they have torn to pieces [the] bonds. ⁶ Therefore a lion from [the] forest will kill them, A wolf [from the] desert plains will devastate them. A leopard [is] watching their cities, everyone [who] goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous.

⁷ "{How} can I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me, and they have sworn by [those who are] not gods. But I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and flocked [to] the house of a prostitute. ⁸ They were well-fed lusty horses, they neighed each to the wife of his neighbor. ⁹ Because of these [things] shall I not punish?" {declares} Yahweh, "and on a nation who [is] like this, shall I not take revenge?

¹⁰ Go up through her vineyards and destroy, but you must not make complete destruction. Remove her branches, for they [are] not to Yahweh. ¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt utterly treacherously with me," {declares} Yahweh. ¹² "They have denied Yahweh, and have said, 'Not he, {for} evil will not come on us, we will see neither sword nor famine. ¹³ And the prophets are like wind, and the word [is] not in them.' Thus it will be done to them."