Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh {Or, faithfulness}truth; and I will pardon her.
And though they say, As Jehovah liveth; surely they swear falsely.
O Jehovah, {Hebrew: are not thine eyes upon.}do not thine eyes look upon {Or, faithfulness}truth? thou hast stricken them, but they were not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive {Or, instruction}correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God:
I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know the way of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the {Or, deserts}evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
How can I pardon thee? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had {Or, according to another reading, made them swear}fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses;
they were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not Jehovah's.
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith Jehovah.
They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
Wherefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah: it is {Or, an enduring nation}a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall {Or, impoverish}beat down thy fortified cities, wherein thou trustest, with the sword.
But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah our God done all these things unto us? then shalt thou say unto them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without {Hebrew: heart.}understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not:
Fear ye not me? saith Jehovah: will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, {Or, an everlasting ordinance which it cannot pass}by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.
But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good from you.
For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxed rich.
They are waxed fat, they shine: yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
{Or, Astonishment and horror}A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in the land:
the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule {Or, at their hands}by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
Querverweise zu Jeremia 5,10 Jer 5,10
{Hebrew: Sanctify.}Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day declineth, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said, Hew ye down {Or, as otherwise read, her trees}trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.
Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these.
For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:
then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.
Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known,
and come and stand before me in this house, {Hebrew: whereupon my name is called.}which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations?
Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah.
But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will {Hebrew: devote.}utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
For thus saith Jehovah, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full end.
And delivered his strength into captivity,And his glory into the adversary's hand.
And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.
For I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in {Hebrew: judgement.}measure, and will in no wise {Or, hold thee guiltless}leave thee unpunished.
He gave his people over also unto the sword,And was wroth with his inheritance.
Thou art my {Or, maul}battle-axe and weapons of war: and with thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rideth therein; and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;
and with thee will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces {Or, lieutenants}governors and deputies.
Fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, saith Jehovah; for I am with thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in {Hebrew: judgement.}measure, and will in no wise {Or, hold these guiltless}leave thee unpunished.
And Jehovah said, Call his name {That is, Not my people.}Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be {Hebrew: for you.}your God.
And Jehovah sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spake by his servants the prophets.
Surely at the commandment of Jehovah came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did,
and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood: and Jehovah would not pardon.
But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the nations whither they come; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed: he gave them all into his hand.
Behold, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; save that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith Jehovah.
{Or, Woe to Asshur}Ho Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, the staff in whose hand is mine indignation!
I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and {Hebrew: to make them a treading down.}to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.
The {Or, oracle concerning}burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
Set ye up an ensign upon the bare mountain, lift up the voice unto them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
I have commanded my consecrated ones, yea, I have called my mighty men for mine anger, even {Or, them that exult in my majesty}my proudly exulting ones.
The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host for the battle.
They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
And to the others he said in my hearing, Go ye through the city after him, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity;
slay {Hebrew: to destruction.}utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the {Or, elders}old men that were before the house.
And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and smote in the city.
Or if I bring a sword upon that land, and say, {Or, Let the sword go}Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and beast;
But the king was wroth; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.