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Text -- Jeremiah 5:3-31 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
5:3 Lord , I know you look for faithfulness . But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse . Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected . They have become as hardheaded as a rock . They refuse to change their ways .
5:4 I thought , “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands . They do not know what their God requires of them.
5:5 I will go to the leaders and speak with them. Surely they know what the Lord demands . Surely they know what their God requires of them.” Yet all of them , too , have rejected his authority and refuse to submit to him .
5:6 So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them. Like a wolf from the desert they will destroy them. Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities and totally destroy anyone who ventures out . For they have rebelled so much and done so many unfaithful things .
5:7 The Lord asked, “How can I leave you unpunished , Jerusalem ? Your people have rejected me and have worshiped gods that are not gods at all . Even though I supplied all their needs, they were like an unfaithful wife to me. They went flocking to the houses of prostitutes .
5:8 They are like lusty , well-fed stallions . Each of them lusts after his neighbor’s wife .
5:9 I will surely punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord . “I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this !”
5:10 The Lord commanded the enemy, “March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. But do not destroy them completely . Strip off their branches for these people do not belong to the Lord .
5:11 For the nations of Israel and Judah have been very unfaithful to me,” says the Lord .
5:12 “These people have denied what the Lord says. They have said , ‘That is not so! No harm will come to us. We will not experience war and famine .
5:13 The prophets will prove to be full of wind . The Lord has not spoken through them. So, let what they say happen to them.’”
5:14 Because of that , the Lord , the God who rules over all , said to me, “Because these people have spoken like this , I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire . And I will make this people like wood which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up .”
5:15 The Lord says , “Listen , nation of Israel ! I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you. It will be a nation that was founded long ago and has lasted for a long time. It will be a nation whose language you will not know . Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand .
5:16 All of its soldiers are strong and mighty . Their arrows will send you to your grave .
5:17 They will eat up your crops and your food . They will kill off your sons and your daughters . They will eat up your sheep and your cattle . They will destroy your vines and your fig trees . Their weapons will batter down the fortified cities you trust in.
5:18 Yet even then I will not completely destroy destroy you ,” says the Lord .
5:19 “So then , Jeremiah, when your people ask , ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ tell them, ‘It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land . So you must serve foreigners in a land that does not belong to you.’
5:20 “Proclaim this message among the descendants of Jacob . Make it known throughout Judah .
5:21 Tell them: ‘Hear this , you foolish people who have no understanding , who have eyes but do not discern , who have ears but do not perceive :
5:22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord . “You should tremble in awe before me! I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea , a permanent barrier that it can never cross . Its waves may roll , but they can never prevail . They may roar , but they can never cross beyond that boundary.”
5:23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts . They have turned aside and gone their own way.
5:24 They do not say to themselves , “Let us revere the Lord our God . It is he who gives us the autumn rains and the spring rains at the proper time . It is he who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest .”
5:25 Your misdeeds have stopped these things from coming. Your sins have deprived you of my bounty .’
5:26 “Indeed , there are wicked scoundrels among my people . They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush . They set deadly traps to catch people .
5:27 Like a cage filled with the birds that have been caught, their houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit . That is how they have gotten so rich and powerful .
5:28 That is how they have grown fat and sleek . There is no limit to the evil things they do . They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor .
5:29 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord . “I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this !
5:30 “Something horrible and shocking is going on in the land of Judah:
5:31 The prophets prophesy lies . The priests exercise power by their own authority . And my people love to have it this way . But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes !
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
Sin |
Backsliders |
Idolatry |
Wicked |
Rich, The |
Wolf |
God |
Impenitence |
Minister |
Leopard |
Harvest |
Cage |
Blindness |
Ingratitude |
Agriculture |
Yoke |
Unbelief |
FOWLER |
Infidelity |
War |
more
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Jer 5:3; Jer 5:3; Jer 5:3; Jer 5:3; Jer 5:4; Jer 5:4; Jer 5:4; Jer 5:5; Jer 5:5; Jer 5:5; Jer 5:5; Jer 5:6; Jer 5:6; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:7; Jer 5:8; Jer 5:8; Jer 5:9; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:11; Jer 5:12; Jer 5:12; Jer 5:12; Jer 5:13; Jer 5:13; Jer 5:13; Jer 5:14; Jer 5:14; Jer 5:14; Jer 5:14; Jer 5:14; Jer 5:14; Jer 5:14; Jer 5:15; Jer 5:15; Jer 5:15; Jer 5:16; Jer 5:16; Jer 5:17; Jer 5:17; Jer 5:17; Jer 5:17; Jer 5:18; Jer 5:19; Jer 5:19; Jer 5:19; Jer 5:19; Jer 5:20; Jer 5:20; Jer 5:21; Jer 5:22; Jer 5:22; Jer 5:23; Jer 5:24; Jer 5:24; Jer 5:25; Jer 5:25; Jer 5:26; Jer 5:26; Jer 5:27; Jer 5:27; Jer 5:27; Jer 5:28; Jer 5:28; Jer 5:28; Jer 5:28; Jer 5:29; Jer 5:29; Jer 5:31; Jer 5:31
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NET Notes: Jer 5:5 Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.
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NET Notes: Jer 5:7 This could be a reference to cultic temple prostitution connected with the pagan shrines. For allusion to this in the OT, see, e.g., Deut 23:17 and 2 ...
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NET Notes: Jer 5:9 Heb “Should I not punish them…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions have the force of strong declaratio...
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NET Notes: Jer 5:10 Heb “for they do not belong to the Lord.” In the light of the context and Jeremiah’s identification of Israel as a vine (cf., e.g., ...
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NET Notes: Jer 5:13 Heb “the word is not in them.” The MT has a highly unusual form here, the Piel perfect with the definite article (הַד...
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NET Notes: Jer 5:16 Heb “his quiver [is] an open grave.” The order of the lines has been reversed to make the transition from “nation” to “t...
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NET Notes: Jer 5:17 Heb “They will beat down with the sword.” The term “sword” is a figure of speech (synecdoche) for military weapons in general....
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NET Notes: Jer 5:19 This is probably a case of deliberate ambiguity (double entendre). The adjective “foreigners” is used for both foreign people (so Jer 30:8...
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NET Notes: Jer 5:23 The words, “their own way” are not in the text but are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.
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NET Notes: Jer 5:28 There is a wordplay in the use of this word which has twice been applied in v. 22 to the sea not crossing the boundary set for it by God.
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NET Notes: Jer 5:29 These words are repeated from 5:9 to give a kind of refrain justifying again the necessity of punishment in the light of such sins.
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