---
title: Jeremiah 5
slug: kjv/jeremiah-5
createdAt: 2024-08-21T02:41:51.432Z
---

**1 **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.

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

**3 **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.

**4 **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.

**5 **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.

**6 **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.

**7 **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.

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

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

**10 **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.

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

**12 **They have belied the LORD, and said, *It is* not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

**13 **And the prophets shall become wind, and the word *is* not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

**14 **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.

**15 **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.

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

**17 **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.

**18 **Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you. **19 **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.

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

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

**22 **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?

**23 **But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

**24 **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.

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

**26 **For among my people are found wicked *men*: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

**27 **As a cage is full of birds, so *are* their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.

**28 **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.

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

**30 **A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

**31 **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?