Jeremiah 5:18-31

5:18 Yet even then ¹  I will not completely destroy you,” says the Lord. 5:19 “So then, Jeremiah, ²  when your people ³  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 ⁴  you must serve foreigners ⁵  in a land that does not belong to you.’

5:20 “Proclaim ⁶  this message among the descendants of Jacob. ⁷ 

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: ⁸ 

5:22 “You should fear me!” says the Lord.

“You should tremble in awe before me! ⁹ 

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.” ¹⁰ 

5:23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.

They have turned aside and gone their own way. ¹¹ 

5:24 They do not say to themselves, ¹² 

“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.” ¹³ 

5:25 Your misdeeds have stopped these things from coming. ¹⁴ 

Your sins have deprived you of my bounty.’ ¹⁵ 

5:26 “Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people.

They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. ¹⁶ 

They set deadly traps ¹⁷  to catch people.

5:27 Like a cage filled with the birds that have been caught, ¹⁸ 

their houses are filled with the gains of their fraud and deceit. ¹⁹ 

That is how they have gotten so rich and powerful. ²⁰ 

5:28 That is how ²¹  they have grown fat and sleek. ²² 

There is no limit to the evil things they do. ²³ 

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! ²⁴ 

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. ²⁵ 

And my people love to have it this way.

But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ²⁶ 

[5:18]  ¹ tn Heb “in those days.”

[5:19]  ² tn The word, “Jeremiah,” is not in the text but the second person address in the second half of the verse is obviously to him. The word is supplied in the translation here for clarity.

[5:19]  ³ tn The MT reads the second masculine plural; this is probably a case of attraction to the second masculine plural pronoun in the preceding line. An alternative would be to understand a shift from speaking first to the people in the first half of the verse and then speaking to Jeremiah in the second half where the verb is second masculine singular. E.g., “When you [people] say, “Why…?” then you, Jeremiah, tell them…”

[5:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “As you left me and…, so you will….” The translation was chosen so as to break up a rather long and complex sentence.

[5:19]  ⁵ sn This is probably a case of deliberate ambiguity (double entendre). The adjective “foreigners” is used for both foreign people (so Jer 30:8; 51:51) and foreign gods (so Jer 2:25; 3:13). See also Jer 16:13 for the idea of having to serve other gods in the lands of exile.

[5:20]  ⁶ sn The verbs are second plural here. Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord, addresses his people, calling on them to make the message further known.

[5:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the house of Jacob.”

[5:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear.”

[5:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “Should you not fear me? Should you not tremble in awe before me?” The rhetorical questions expect the answer explicit in the translation.

[5:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “it.” The referent is made explicit to avoid any possible confusion.

[5:23]  ¹¹ tn The words, “their own way” are not in the text but are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:24]  ¹² tn Heb “say in their hearts.”

[5:24]  ¹³ tn Heb “who keeps for us the weeks appointed for harvest.”

[5:25]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “have turned these things away.”

[5:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “have withheld the good from you.”

[5:26]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of the last three words is uncertain. The pointing and meaning of the Hebrew word rendered “hiding in ambush” is debated. BDB relates the form (כְּשַׁךְ, kÿshakh) to a root שָׁכַךְ (shakhakh), which elsewhere means “decrease, abate” (cf. BDB 1013 s.v. שָׁכַךְ), and notes that this is usually understood as “like the crouching of fowlers,” but they say this meaning is dubious. HALOT 1345 s.v. I שׁוֹר questions the validity of the text and offers three proposals; the second appears to create the least textual modification, i.e., reading כְּשַׂךְ (kesakh, “as in the hiding place of (bird catchers)”; for the word שַׂךְ (sakh) see HALOT 1236 s.v. שׂךְ 4 and compare Lam 2:6 for usage. The versions do not help. The Greek does not translate the first two words of the line. The proposal given in HALOT is accepted with some hesitancy.

[5:26]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “a destroying thing.”

[5:27]  ¹⁸ tn The words, “that have been caught” are not in the text but are implicit in the comparison.

[5:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “are filled with deceit.” The translation assumes a figure of speech of cause for effect (metonymy). Compare the same word in the same figure in Zeph 1:9.

[5:27]  ²⁰ tn Heb “therefore they have gotten great and rich.”

[5:28]  ²¹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show that this line is parallel with the preceding.

[5:28]  ²² tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. This verb occurs only here. The lexicons generally relate it to the word translated “plate” in Song 5:14 and understand it to mean “smooth, shiny” (so BDB 799 s.v. I עֶשֶׁת) or “fat” (so HALOT 850 s.v. II עֶשֶׁת). The word in Song 5:14 more likely means “smooth” than “plate” (so TEV). So “sleek” is most likely here.

[5:28]  ²³ tn Heb “they cross over/transgress with respect to matters of evil.”

[5:29]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Should I not punish…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions function as emphatic declarations.

[5:31]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they shall rule at their hands.” Since the word “hand” can be used figuratively for authority or mean “side” and the pronoun “them” can refer to the priests themselves or the prophets, the following translations have also been suggested: “the priests rule under their [the prophets’] directions,” or “the priests rule in league with them [the prophets].” From the rest of the book it would appear that the prophets did not exercise authority over the priests nor did they exercise the same authority over the people that the priests did. Hence it probably mean “by their own hand/power/authority.”

[5:31]  ²⁶ tn Heb “But what will you do at its end?” The rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “Nothing!”