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5. Not One Is Upright

¹ “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,
   look around and consider,
   search through her squares.
If you can find but one person
   who deals honestly and seeks the truth,
   I will forgive this city.
² Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
   still they are swearing falsely.”

    ³ LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
   You struck them, but they felt no pain;
   you crushed them, but they refused correction.
They made their faces harder than stone
   and refused to repent.
⁴ I thought, “These are only the poor;
   they are foolish,
for they do not know the way of the LORD,
   the requirements of their God.
⁵ So I will go to the leaders
   and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the LORD,
   the requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
   and torn off the bonds.
⁶ Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them,
   a wolf from the desert will ravage them,
a leopard will lie in wait near their towns
   to tear to pieces any who venture out,
for their rebellion is great
   and their backslidings many.

    ⁷ “Why should I forgive you?
   Your children have forsaken me
   and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I supplied all their needs,
   yet they committed adultery
   and thronged to the houses of prostitutes.
⁸ They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
   each neighing for another man’s wife.
⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?

    ¹⁰ “Go through her vineyards and ravage them,
   but do not destroy them completely.
Strip off her branches,
   for these people do not belong to the LORD.
¹¹ The people of Israel and the people of Judah
   have been utterly unfaithful to me,” declares the LORD.

    ¹² They have lied about the LORD;
   they said, “He will do nothing!
No harm will come to us;
   we will never see sword or famine.
¹³ The prophets are but wind
   and the word is not in them;
   so let what they say be done to them.”

¹⁴ Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty says:

   “Because the people have spoken these words,
   I will make my words in your mouth a fire
   and these people the wood it consumes.
¹⁵ People of Israel,” declares the LORD,
   “I am bringing a distant nation against you—
an ancient and enduring nation,
   a people whose language you do not know,
   whose speech you do not understand.
¹⁶ Their quivers are like an open grave;
   all of them are mighty warriors.
¹⁷ They will devour your harvests and food,
   devour your sons and daughters;
they will devour your flocks and herds,
   devour your vines and fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
   the fortified cities in which you trust.

¹⁸ “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not destroy you completely. ¹⁹ And when the people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’

    ²⁰ “Announce this to the descendants of Jacob
   and proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ Hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
   who have eyes but do not see,
   who have ears but do not hear:
²² Should you not fear me?” declares the LORD.
   “Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
   an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
   they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
²³ But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
   they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say to themselves,
   ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives autumn and spring rains in season,
   who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
²⁵ Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
   your sins have deprived you of good.

    ²⁶ “Among my people are the wicked
   who lie in wait like men who snare birds
   and like those who set traps to catch people.
²⁷ Like cages full of birds,
   their houses are full of deceit;
they have become rich and powerful
    ²⁸ and have grown fat and sleek.
Their evil deeds have no limit;
   they do not seek justice.
They do not promote the case of the fatherless;
   they do not defend the just cause of the poor.
²⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?

    ³⁰ “A horrible and shocking thing
   has happened in the land:
³¹ The prophets prophesy lies,
   the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
   But what will you do in the end?

The Prophet confirms what he had said, lest the Jews should think that they were only terrified by words, and not dread the consequences. Hence he says, Declare this The Prophet, no doubt, alludes to a custom which prevailed; for wars were usually proclaimed by heralds. Enemies did not immediately march forth, but they proclaimed war that the cause might appear just. Hence God here declares, that he had spoken in earnest by the mouth of Jeremiah, as though war had been in the usual manner proclaimed, and armed enemies were already nigh at hand.

Declare ye then this; and what is it? Hear, O foolish people, etc. Here he first reproves the Jews and Israelites for their stupidity, because they were even without common sense; for the heart in Hebrew means the mind or understanding, as we have seen elsewhere. He then says, that this people were destitute of all understanding. He first calls them fatuous or foolish; but as many are slow and heavy and yet not without common sense, he adds that they were a people without heart or understanding. He seems indeed to add by way of correction, that they had eyes and ears: but his object was ironically to enhance what he had said, and to shew that they were stupid, and no less so than blocks of wood or stones. How so? “Ye have ears and eyes, “he says, “but ye neither see nor hear.” ¹⁴⁹¹⁴⁹     It is better to retain the future tense, as their obstinacy is thereby more fully expressed; the whole verse may be thus literally rendered, —
   Hear, I pray, this, Ye perverse people and without understanding, — Eyes they have, but they will not see, Ears they have, but they will not hear.
   The “this” which they were to hear is contained in the next verse. The two last lines are only explanatory of the preceding. They were “without understanding,“ for they would not see, though they had eyes; and they were “perverse,“ or perversely foolish, for they would not hear, though they had ears. When two things are mentioned and afterwards referred to, the prophets usually explain the last, and then the first, as the case is here. The two last lines may be included in a parenthesis. — Ed.

He no doubt alludes to the idols to which they had become devoted: for it is said in Psalm 115:8, that those who made idols were like them, as well as those who trusted in them; for it had been previously said, that idols had ears but heard not, and eyes but saw not. Jeremiah then indirectly condemns the Jews here for having become so stupid in their superstitions as to be like dead idols: for there is in an idol some likeness to man; it has various members but no understanding. So also he says, the Jews had eyes and ears and the external form of men; but they were at the same time no less stupid than if they were stones or blocks of wood. Now follows the proclamation —