Jeremiah 5 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The Lord says,\} “Walk the streets of Jerusalem. Look around and think about these things. Search the public squares of the city. See if you can find one good person, one person that does honest things, one that searches for the truth. If you find one good person, I will forgive Jerusalem!

² The people make promises and say, ‘As the Lord lives.’ But they don’t really mean it.”

³ Lord, I know that you want people\par to be loyal to you.\par You hit the people of Judah,\par but they did not feel any pain.\par You destroyed them,\par but they refused to learn their lesson.\par They became very stubborn.\par They refused to be sorry\par for the bad things they did.\par

⁴ But I (Jeremiah) said to myself,\par “It must be only the poor people\par that are so foolish.\par Poor people have not learned\par the way of the Lord.\par Poor people don’t know\par the teachings of their God.\par

⁵ So I will go to the leaders of Judah.\par I will talk to them.\par Surely the leaders know the way of the Lord.\par I am sure they know the law of their God.”\par But the leaders had all joined together\par to break away from serving the Lord.\par

⁶ They turned against God,\par so a lion from the forest will attack them.\par A wolf from the desert will kill them.\par A leopard is hiding near their cities.\par The leopard will tear to pieces\par any person that comes out of the city.\par This will happen because the people\par of Judah have sinned again and again.\par They have wandered away from the Lord\par many times.\par

⁷ \{God said,\}\par “Judah, give me one good reason\par why I should forgive you.\par Your children have abandoned me.\par They made promises to idols\par And those idols are not really gods!\par I gave your children everything they needed.\par But they still were unfaithful to me!\par They spent much time with prostitutes.\par

⁸ They are like horses\par that have had plenty to eat\par and are ready to mate.\par They are like a horse that is\par calling its neighbor’s wife.\par

⁹ Should I punish the people of Judah\par for doing these things?”\par This message is from the Lord.\par “Yes! You know I should punish a nation\par that lives like that.\par I will give them the punishment\par that they deserve.\par

¹⁰ “Go along the rows of Judah’s grapevines.\par Cut down the vines.\par (But don’t completely destroy them.)\par Cut off all their branches.\par Why? Because they don’t belong to the Lord.\par

¹¹ The family of Israel and the family of Judah\par have been unfaithful to me in every way.”\par This message is from the Lord.\par

¹² “Those people have lied about the Lord.\par They have said,\par ‘The Lord will not do anything to us.\par Nothing bad will happen to us.\par We will never see an army attack us.\par We will never starve.’\par

¹³ “The \{false\} prophets are only empty wind. {\cf2\super [33]} \par The word of God is not in them. {\cf2\super [34]} \par Bad things will happen to them.”\par

¹⁴ The Lord God All-Powerful said\par these things:\par “Those people said I would not punish them.\par So Jeremiah, the words I give you\par will be like fire.\par And those people will be like wood.\par That fire will burn them up completely!\par

¹⁵ Family of Israel, this message\par is from the Lord,\par “I will soon bring a nation from far away\par to attack you.\par It is an old nation.\par It is an ancient nation.\par The people of that nation speak a language\par that you don’t know.\par You can’t understand what they say.\par

¹⁶ Their arrow bags are like open graves.\par All of their men are strong soldiers.\par

¹⁷ Those soldiers will eat all the crops\par that you gathered.\par They will eat all of your food.\par They will eat (destroy) your sons\par and daughters.\par They will eat your flocks and your herds.\par They will eat your grapes and your figs.\par They will destroy your strong cities\par with their swords.\par They will destroy the strong cities\par that you trust in!\par

¹⁸ This message is from the Lord,\par “But Judah, when those terrible days come,\par I will not fully destroy you.\par

¹⁹ The people of Judah will ask you,\par ‘Jeremiah, why has the Lord our God\par done this bad thing to us?’\par Give them this answer:\par ‘You people of Judah have left the Lord,\par and you have served foreign idols\par in your own land.\par You did those things, so now\par you will serve foreigners in a land\par that doesn’t belong to you.’”\par

²⁰ \{The Lord said,\}\par “Tell this message to the family of Jacob.\par Tell this message in the nation of Judah:\par

²¹ Hear this message.\par You foolish people have no sense:\par ‘You have eyes, but you don’t see!\par You have ears, but you don’t listen!’\par

²² Surely you are afraid of me.’”\par This message is from the Lord.\par “You should shake with fear in front of me.\par I am the One who made the beaches\par to be a boundary for the sea.\par I made it that way to keep the water\par in its place forever.\par The waves may pound the beach,\par but they will not destroy it.\par The waves may roar as they come in,\par but they can’t go beyond the beach.\par

²³ But the people of Judah are stubborn.\par They are always planning ways\par to turn against me.\par They turned away from me\par and left me.\par

²⁴ The people of Judah never say to themselves,\par ‘Let’s fear and respect the Lord our God.\par He gives us autumn and spring rains\par at just the right time.\par He makes sure that we have the harvest\par at just the right time.’\par

²⁵ People of Judah, you have done wrong.\par So the rains and the harvest have not come.\par Your sins have kept you from enjoying\par those good things from the Lord.\par

²⁶ There are evil men among my people.\par Those evil men are like men\par that make nets for catching birds. {\cf2\super [35]} \par These men set their traps,\par But they catch men instead of birds.\par

²⁷ The houses of these evil men are full of lies,\par like a cage full of birds.\par Their lies made them rich and powerful.\par

²⁸ They have grown big and fat\par \{from the evil things they have done\}.\par There is no end to the evil things they do.\par They will not plead the case\par of children that have no parents.\par They will not help those orphans.\par They will not let poor people\par be judged fairly.\par

²⁹ Should I punish the people of Judah\par for doing these things?”\par This message is from the Lord.\par “You know that I should punish a nation\par such as this.\par I should give them the punishment\par that they deserve.”\par

³⁰ \{The Lord says,\}\par “A terrible and shocking thing\par has happened in the land of Judah.\par

³¹ The prophets tell lies.\par The priests will not do\par what they were chosen to do. {\cf2\super [36]} \par And my people love it this way!\par But what will you people do\par when your punishment comes?”\par