Yaram'Yahu (Jeremiah) — 5

The Sins of Yahudah

1 “Run up and down every street in Yahushalam,” says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, “Look high and low; search throughout the city! If you can find even one just and honest person, I will not destroy the city.

2 But even when they are under oath,    saying, ‘As surely as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH lives,’ they are still telling lies!”

3 O 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, you are searching for honesty, You struck your people, but they paid no attention, You crushed them, but they refused to be corrected, they are determined, with faces set like stone; they have refused to repent.

4 Then I said, “But what can we expect from the poor? They are ignorant, they do not know the ways of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, They do not understand 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s laws.

5 So I will go and speak to their leaders.    Surely they know the ways of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and understand 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s laws.”But the leaders, too, as one man, had thrown off 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH’s yoke and broken His chains.

6 So now a lion from the forest will attack them; a wolf from the desert will pounce on them, a leopard will lurk near their towns, tearing apart any who dare to venture out, for their rebellion is great, and their sins are many.

7 “How can I pardon you? For even your children have turned from me, they have sworn by idols that are not alive at all! I fed my people until they were full, But they thanked me by committing adultery and lining up at the brothels.

8 They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.

9 Should I not punish them for this?” says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?

10 “Go down the rows of the vineyards and destroy the grapevines, leaving a scattered few alive, Strip the branches from the vines, for these people do not belong to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH.

11 The people of Yashar'AL and Yahudah are full of treachery against me,” says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH.

12 “They have lied about  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH and said, ‘𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH will not bother us! No disasters will come upon us, there will be no war or famine.

13 For 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s Nabyms are all wind bags who do not really speak for 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, Let their predictions of disaster fall on themselves!’”

14 Therefore, this is what  𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Tsaba'ut Dabar: “Because the people are talking like this, my messages will flame out and burn the people like kindling wood.

15 O Yashar'AL, I will bring a distant nation against you,” says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. “It is a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you cannot understand.

16 Their weapons are deadly; their warriors are mighty.

17 They will devour the food of your harvest; they will devour your sons and daughters, they will devour your flocks and herds; they will devour your grapes and figs, and they will destroy your fortified towns, which you think are so safe.

18 “Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely,” says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. 

19 “And when your people ask, ‘Why did 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH our 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘you rejected Him and gave yourselves to foreign idols in your own land, Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’

A Warning for YAHUAH’s People

20 “Make this announcement to Yashar'AL, and say this to Yahudah:

21 Listen, you foolish and senseless people, with eyes that do not see and ears that do not hear.

22 Have you no respect for me? Why do you not tremble in my presence? I 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross, the waves may toss and roar, but they can never pass the boundaries I set.

23 But my people have stubborn and rebellious hearts, they have turned away and abandoned me.

24 They do not say from the heart, ‘Let us live in awe of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH our  𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH, for He gives us rain each spring and fall, assuring us of a harvest when the time is right.’

25 Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful Barakah, Your sin has robbed you of all these good things.

26 “Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait for victims like a hunter hiding in a blind, they continually set traps to catch people.

27 Like a cage filled with birds, their homes are filled with evil plots, and now they are great and rich.

28 They are fat and sleek, and there is no limit to their wicked deeds, they refuse to provide justice to orphans and deny the rights of the poor.

29 Should I not punish them for this?” says 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH, “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?

30 A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land,

31 the Nabyms give false prophecies, and the Kuhanym rule with an iron hand, Worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?