Jeremiah 5:19-25

5:19 “So then, Jeremiah, ¹  when your people ²  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 ³  you must serve foreigners ⁴  in a land that does not belong to you.’

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

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: ⁷ 

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

“You should tremble in awe before me! ⁸ 

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.” ⁹ 

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

They have turned aside and gone their own way. ¹⁰ 

5:24 They do not say to themselves, ¹¹ 

“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.” ¹² 

5:25 Your misdeeds have stopped these things from coming. ¹³ 

Your sins have deprived you of my bounty.’ ¹⁴ 

[5:19]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the house of Jacob.”

[5:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “they have eyes but they do not see, they have ears but they do not hear.”

[5:22]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it.” The referent is made explicit to avoid any possible confusion.

[5:23]  ¹⁷ tn The words, “their own way” are not in the text but are implicit and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “say in their hearts.”

[5:24]  ²² tn Heb “who keeps for us the weeks appointed for harvest.”

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

[5:25]  ²⁶ tn Heb “have withheld the good from you.”