The Father Finds No Faithfulness
Search Jerusalem for one honest person, our Father says, and the city would be spared. None is found — not among the poor, not among the leaders. Prophets lie, priests rule for themselves, and the people prefer it that way. The chapter ends with a question left open.
5 1"Roam through the streets of Jerusalem, look now and take note! Search her squares—if you can find one person, one who does justice and seeks truth, then I will pardon her. 2Even when they say, 'As our Father lives,' they are swearing falsely."
3Our Father, do not your eyes look for faithfulness? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They made their faces harder than rock; they refused to turn back. 4Then I said, 'These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of our Father, the just ways of their Father.' 5I will go to the great ones and speak to them, for they surely know the way of our Father, the just ways of their Father.' But they too, all of them, had broken the yoke; they had burst the bonds. 6Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them, a wolf of the desert will ravage them. A leopard lies watching their cities; everyone who goes out from them will be torn to pieces—for their rebellions are many, their backslidings without number.
7"Why should I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those who are no gods. I gave them their fill, yet they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of prostitutes. 8They were like well-fed, lusty stallions, each one neighing for his neighbor's wife.' 9Should I not punish them for these things? declares our Father. Should I not bring justice on a nation such as this? 10Go up through her rows of vines and destroy, but do not make a full end; strip away her branches, for they are not our Father's. 11For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly faithless to me, declares our Father."
12They have spoken falsely of our Father; they said, 'He will do nothing! No disaster will come upon us; we will not see sword or famine.' 13The prophets are only wind; the word is not in them. So let it be done to them!
14Therefore this is what the Father of heaven's armies says: Because you have spoken this word, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people the wood, and it will consume them. 15Look, I am bringing against you a nation from far away, O house of Israel, declares our Father—an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, whose speech you cannot understand. 16"Their quiver is like an open grave; they are all mighty warriors. 17They will devour your harvest and your bread; they will devour your sons and your daughters; they will devour your flocks and your herds; they will devour your vines and your fig trees. With the sword they will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust."
18Yet even in those days, declares our Father, I will not make a full end of you. 19When they ask, 'Why has our Father done all this to us?' tell them: 'As you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so you'll serve strangers in a land not yours.'
20"Announce this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah: 21Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear:" 22Do you not fear me? declares our Father. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an everlasting decree it cannot pass. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot cross it. 23But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone their own way. 24They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear our Father, who gives the rain—the autumn and the spring rain in its season—who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.' 25"Your wrongdoings have turned these blessings away, and your sins have withheld the good from you. 26For among my people are found wicked men; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap, and it is people they catch. 27Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have grown great and rich. 28They have grown fat and sleek; they overflow with evil deeds. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper, and the rights of the needy they do not uphold." 29Should I not punish them for these things? declares our Father. Should I not bring justice on a nation such as this? 30"An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: 31the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love it so. But what will you do when the end comes?"
