BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 5

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 5 of 52•31 verses

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Jeremiah 5 Overview

Jeremiah searches Jerusalem for a person committed to truth but finds corruption at every level; people deny coming judgment, prophets speak falsely, priests rule by their influence, and the nation prefers it that way.

JeremiahBook

5Chapter

31Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 5

Coming from

Jeremiah calls for genuine return and heart circumcision, then sounds an alarm as a destroyer from the north approaches; the land is pictured as reverting toward creation chaos under devastating judgment.

In this chapter

Leads into

The siege warning intensifies as enemies prepare against Jerusalem; Jeremiah describes stubborn people who will not listen, exposes superficial healing that cries 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace, and portrays Judah as rejected silver after failed refining.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter investigates whether Jerusalem’s society contains enough truth and justice to contradict the indictment. The search exposes pervasive rebellion rather than isolated failure.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 5 is the chapter’s own movement: corruption can cross class lines. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Corruption can cross class lines

Both poor and great have broken God’s yoke.

False assurance is spiritually dangerous

People deny that sword or famine will come despite prophetic warning.

Bad leaders and willing followers can reinforce each other

The chapter ends with prophets lying, priests benefiting, and people loving the arrangement.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Genesis 18:23-33

Abraham’s discussion about righteous people in Sodom provides a striking background to Jeremiah’s search through Jerusalem.

Micah 3

Micah likewise condemns corrupt prophets, priests, and rulers.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

Paul warns of people gathering teachers who tell them what they want to hear, resembling Jeremiah’s final diagnosis.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not conclude that literally no righteous individual existed in Jerusalem.

The search rhetoric emphasizes society-wide corruption, while Jeremiah elsewhere names faithful individuals.

Do not blame leaders alone.

Jeremiah explicitly says the people love the corrupt arrangement.

Read Jeremiah 5 watching for…

the search through Jerusalem

poor and great alike breaking the yoke

denial of judgment

the foreign nation from afar

the final question 'what will ye do in the end?'

Chapter outline4 sections

1-9Jerusalem is searched for one person who seeks truth, but rebellion is widespread 10-19An invading nation comes because Israel and Judah have dealt treacherously with the LORD 20-24The people refuse to fear the LORD who rules the sea and gives the seasons 25-31Sin has withheld good, while wicked men, false prophets, and corrupt priests prosper

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 executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: 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 battlements; for they are not the LORD's.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.

They have belied the LORD, 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 the LORD 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 the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.

And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.

Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea 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 the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; 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 waxen rich.

They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

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Jeremiah 5:4

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