Jeremiahchapter 5
31 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
This sermon was preached to the people of Jerusalem, who were sure God would never let His own capital fall. It is set in the streets and open squares where trade was done and disputes were judged. Its hearers were taught that God is patient, and they had come to count on that patience. The chapter asks what that patience was being spent on. Listen for the search at the beginning and for the animals that stand at the edge of the city. Listen for the limit God places on His own judgment, stated twice. Read it as the case against a city's daily business.
Context
- Who
- City people confident that God would never let his own capital fall
- What
- A search through Jerusalem for one just person, followed by the charges against the people, the prophets and the priests.
- Where
- The streets, squares and gates of Jerusalem, with the grain fields outside her walls.
- When
- The chapter carries no date; it belongs to the early sermons, usually placed in the later years of Josiah or the first years after him.
- Why
- To show that the city's dishonesty reached from the poor to the great, and that judgment was coming with a limit set on it.
Historical context
The chapter begins with a search through the city's streets and open squares. The square inside a city gate was the courthouse, the market, and the news exchange all at once, elders sat there to settle disputes, and business was done in the open in front of witnesses. To hunt through the gate square for one honest man is to say the justice system itself has failed.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The three animals named, lion, desert wolf, leopard, were all real hazards. Lions lived in the thickets along the Jordan into the Middle Ages, wolves worked the dry margins at dusk, and leopards took livestock from the hill country.
Two images describe the rich. They are sleek and fat like stall-fed animals, and they are like a cage full of birds, the trapper's basket where captured birds were kept alive until market. The men are the trappers; their neighbours are the stock.
Against all of that stands the sea and the sand. The Mediterranean pounds a shoreline of loose sand and never gets past it, because it was given a boundary it cannot cross. The point of the picture is that a heap of sand obeys and a covenant nation does not.
Significance
First hearers had been taught, correctly, that God was patient. This chapter says the machinery of daily business, false weights, rigged verdicts, prophets saying nothing will happen, is what patience was being spent on.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The most alarming line is not the threat but the limit placed on it: make a full end of them, I will not. Even the invasion is bounded. A remnant is going to survive to remember why.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Jeremiah 5, and no festival reading for the book. Across chapters 1 to 26 of Jeremiah the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 16 and 17.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
Rashi reads the search through Jerusalem as the prophet's own report. He went to the poor and found them "impoverished of wisdom", and then to the great ones, who broke the yoke as well (Rashi on Jeremiah 5:4:1 and 5:5:1). The lion from the forest is "The kingdom of Babylon" (Rashi on Jeremiah 5:6:1).
On the prophets who become wind he follows the Targum and calls them the false prophets, whose words in the name of God turn to nothing (Rashi on Jeremiah 5:13:1). On the sand set as the boundary of the sea he draws the lesson plainly. The sea, which looks for no reward, does not cross the line God set, and Israel does (Rashi on Jeremiah 5:22:1). On the tenth verse he sets his reading of a word against Menahem's and against the Targum, and gives all three (Rashi on Jeremiah 5:10:1).
The corpus carries nine further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Jeremiah 5:1:1, 5:2:1, 5:9:1, 5:11:1, 5:18:1, 5:19:1, 5:20:1, 5:21:1 and 5:23:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 6 in the Talmud and 34 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 50:1, Bereshit Rabbah 49:13 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayera 10. On verse 2 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 26, Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Midrash Ketiv V'lo Keri 5 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 13:4. On verse 3 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:29 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 7:27. On verse 6 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 99:2 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 32. On verse 7 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 71:2.
On verse 8 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:12 and Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Mishnah and Tosefta, Remains of Ancient Tannaitic Compilations 208. On verse 10 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:7. On verse 11 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Nezikin 3:16 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 320:4. On verse 12 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 64:2 and Aggadat Bereshit 74:1. On verse 13 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 4:5:8 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 1:1.
On verse 15 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:25 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 7:4. On verse 16 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 8:5 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 8:5. On verse 17 it holds Bava Kamma 119a:13 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Kama 10:2. On verse 18 it holds Sifrei Aggadah on Esther, Midrash Panim Acherim, Version II 5:7. On verse 19 it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 21. On verse 21 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 938:50.
On verse 22 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 18:22 and Bava Batra 73a:10. On verse 23 it holds Kohelet Rabbah 1:16:1. On verse 24 it holds Kohelet Rabbah 1:3:1 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 8:1. On verse 25 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 4:27 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 3:15. On verse 27 it holds Ein Yaakov, Yevamot 6:16 and Sanhedrin 100b:10. On verse 28 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 67:3. On verse 30 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 3:6:2.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 5:3:1 to 5:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 5:1:1, 5:2:1, 5:9:1, 5:11:1, 5:18:1, 5:19:1, 5:20:1, 5:21:1 and 5:23:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/5.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Jeremiah 5: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Run Through Jerusalem and Find One Man Who Does Justice
Jeremiah 5:1-3
The search for one just person in Jerusalem's streets echoes Abraham's bargaining for Sodom. Here the LORD sends the search and sets the bar lower than fifty or ten, at “a single person”. Jeremiah's complaint, “You struck them, but they felt no pain”, names a people discipline cannot soften.
Jeremiah 5:1
“After the address of the Lord in which he commanded, "go throughout Jerusalem," and so on, the prophet addresses the Lord in return: "Lord, your eyes look for faith," which is ʾemûnā in Hebrew, referring not to the works of the Jews, in which they exulted according to ceremonies of the law, but to the faith of Christians, through which we are saved by faith. In this chapter, therefore, we learn that supplications are brought for the correction of our faults.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Six Books on Jeremiah 1:93.1-2patristic
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 5:1
“In the broad places - Even there, where men meet from all quarters. A man - It seems worse than Sodom and Gomorrah, for God condescends to pardon Jerusalem, if there be but one righteous man found in it; there he came no lower than ten.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Chapter 4 promised blessing to the nations if Israel swore As surely as the LORD lives in truth. Here the same oath is sworn falsely. Barnes calls an oath without an upright heart an abomination.
Jeremiah 5:2
“Though - Though when they swear, they use the form of an oath, and say, the Lord liveth, or by the living God: yet it is neither in truth nor righteousness.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 5:2
“The Lord liveth - Though they profess to bind themselves by Jehovah, as if they acknowledged him their God and only Lord, yet they swore falsely; for not believing in him, they took a false oath; one by which they did not believe themselves bound, not acknowledging him as their Lord. See on Jer 4:2 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 5:2
“Though they take the most binding form of oath, they do so only as a means of deceiving others.”
do not Your eyes look for truth?: Spurgeon reads truth here as faithfulness, truthfulness in the hearts and lives of men. The LORD struck them and they felt no pain, and Cyprian reads such blows as discipline for an obstinate people. Their faces are harder than stone.
Jeremiah 5:3
“Disasters occur either to discipline the obstinate people or punish evil people. The same God declares in the Holy Scriptures, "I have struck your children in vain. They have not received correction." The prophet devoted and dedicated to God answers these words in the same way and says, "You struck them, but they have not grieved. You scourged them, but they have refused to receive correction." See, God inflicts stripes, and there is no fear of God.”
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise V. An Address to Demetrianus 7patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 5:3
“THE allusion is not to doctrinal Truth of God, or truth in the abstract, but to practical truth as it should exist in the hearts and lives of men. It might be read, "Lord, are not Your eyes upon truthfulness?" Or, "upon faithfulness?" The Lord bade them produce a single truthful man in all Jerusalem and Jeremiah answers that if truth were to be found, the Lord Himself best knew where it was, for His eyes were always upon it.”
Jeremiah 5:3
“Upon the truth - God looks to the “faith,” the upright purpose of the heart, and without it the nominal fealty of an oath is an abomination.”
Jeremiah 5:4-6
Jeremiah first excuses the poor as ignorant, then goes to the great men expecting better knowledge and finds the same rebellion. The corruption runs the whole social ladder. The lion, wolf and leopard match the size of the offense: “their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous”.
Jeremiah 5:4
“Paul says about those who live in piety and prosperity, "I thank God that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge." And to those who are impious, the blessed Jeremiah says, "Maybe they are poor. For this reason, they could not hear the word of the Lord." Do you see that he calls poor those who have distanced themselves from piety? Therefore, God is merciful to those who sin because they are spiritually poor, and he places demands on those who act justly because they are spiritually rich.”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Homilies on Repentance and Almsgiving 7:3.8patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 5:4
“These are poor - They are ignorant; they have no education; they know no better.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 5:4
“Therefore - More simply “and.” They are foolish - Or, they act foolishly (see Num 12:11), not having that knowledge which would enable them to guide their ways with discretion.”
Jeremiah 5:4
“Truly, slander humiliates a person, and slander troubles the poor person. The evil of slander is so great that it brings down both the perfect person … from his height, and the poor person, that is, the one who lacks great learning, as it seems to the prophet, who says, "Perhaps they are poor … therefore they will not hear. I will go to the great ones," meaning by "the poor" those lacking in intelligence, and here, of course, those not yet made orderly in the inner person or having attained to the perfect measure of their age.”
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · LETTER 223patristic
Surely they know the way of the LORD: Barnes takes the powerful as men of education who read the Scriptures. They too had broken the yoke, which Barnes reads as the law of Moses, and torn off the chains that fastened it to the neck. Rank made no difference.
Jeremiah 5:5
“They have known ... - Men of education, who read the Scriptures, and learn from them the nature of God’s judgments. But these - literally, surely they (compare Jer 5:4). The yoke - The Mosaic law. And burst ... - They have torn off, torn themselves loose from. The bonds - The fastenings by which the yoke was fixed upon the necks of the oxen.”
a lion from the forest will strike them down: Wesley reads the three beasts as Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army: the lion for power and pride, the wolf for greed, the leopard for vigilance. Clarke notes that Dahler took them for the Scythians. Anyone who ventures out is torn.
Jeremiah 5:6
“A lion - Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army are here pointed at under the metaphor of beasts of prey of three kinds; compared to a lion, which denotes his great power, courage, and pride. A wolf - For their greediness and unsatiableness. A leopard - The Chaldean army is compared to a leopard, not for its speed only, but for its vigilancy and subtilty.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:6
“Wherefore a lion - Nebuchadnezzar, according to the general opinion; who is called here a lion for his courage and violence, a bear for his rapaciousness, and a leopard for his activity. Dahler supposes the Scythians to be intended, both here and in Jer 4:7.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 5:7-9
The question of pardon answers itself: “Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods”. Plenty produced the opposite of gratitude: “I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery”. The stallions “neighing after his neighbor’s wife” make the point, appetite with no restraint left in it.
Jeremiah 5:7
“Rather, Why, “for what reason” should “I pardon thee?” When ... - Or, “though I bound them to me by oath, yet they committed adultery.” The harlots’ houses - The harlot’s house, i. e., the temple of an idol; the prophet had also in view (see Jer 5:8) the unchastity which accompanied most forms of nature-worship.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 5:7
“How shall I pardon thee for this?.... Because of their manifold transgressions, and multiplied backslidings; or "wherefore, or for what, shall I pardon thee?" (r) as the Targum; can any reason be given why I should? what goodness is there in thee, or done by thee, that I should do this unto thee? The particle אי, according to Kimchi, is a word of exclamation; and, according to Jarchi, of admiration; and may be rendered, "oh! for this shall I pardon?" how can it be? R.”
Jeremiah 5:7
“It would not be consistent with God's holiness to let such wickedness pass unpunished. sworn by-- (Jer 5:2; Jer 4:2); that is, worshipped. no gods-- (De 32:21). fed . . . to the full--so the Keri (Hebrew Margin) reads. God's bountifulness is contrasted with their apostasy (De 32:15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
They are well-fed, lusty stallions: Matthew Henry notes that the stallions were fed to the full by God, and the plenty fed their lust. Athanasius compared those who hear commands without doing them to wanton horses. The desire runs to a neighbor's wife.
Jeremiah 5:8
“And that which aggravated their sin was that it was the abuse of God's favours to them: When they were fed to the full, then their lusts grew thus furious. Fulness of bread was fuel to the fire of Sodom's lusts. Sine Cerere et Bacchio friget Venu--Luxurious living feeds the flames of lust.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:8
“Let us then, as is becoming, as at all times, yet especially in the days of the feast, be not hearers only, but doers of the commandments of our Savior. Having imitated the behavior of the saints, we may enter together into the joy of our Lord who is in heaven, which is not transitory but truly abides.… But they who are not doers are compared, in their disgrace, with beasts without understanding, and becoming like them in unlawful pleasures, they are spoken of as wanton horses.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Festal Letters 2:2patristic
The LORD asks whether he should punish such a nation as this, and the answer lies in the charges of verses 7 and 8. Jerome reads punish in its older sense of visit, a visit of punishment. Matthew Henry hears judgment arguing against mercy.
Jeremiah 5:9
“Sometimes mercy rejoices against judgment: How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Here, judgment is reasoning against mercy: Shall I not visit? We are sure that Infinite Wisdom knows how to accommodate the matter between them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
My Words Made Fire in Thy Mouth; a Nation from Afar
Jeremiah 5:10-13
but do not finish them off: The command to destroy carries its own limit, “but do not finish them off”, the restraint 4:27 already named. The house of Israel and the house of Judah are named together as utterly unfaithful. Their false confidence speaks at verse 12, “He will not do anything”.
Jeremiah 5:10
Go ye up upon her walls - This is the permission and authority given to the Chaldeans to pillage Jerusalem. Take away her battlements - Some translate נטישות netishoth, branches; others, vines. Destroy the branches, cut down the stem; but do not damage the root. Leave so many of the people that the state may be regenerated. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, read, “Leave her foundations, for they are the Lord’s;” and this agrees with “Destroy, but make not a full end.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:10
“Abrupt apostrophe to the Babylonians, to take Jerusalem, but not to destroy the nation utterly (see on Jer 4:27). battlements--rather, tendrils [MAURER]: the state being compared to a vine (Jer 12:10), the stem of which was to be spared, while the tendrils (the chief men) were to be removed.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the house of Israel and the house of Judah: Gill, following Abarbinel, takes the house of Israel as the ten tribes and the house of Judah as Judah and Benjamin. Both are named as utterly unfaithful. Their treachery is the reason the vineyard of verse 10 is stripped.
Jeremiah 5:11
Accusation is the censure of wrongdoers. This mode of instruction God employs by David, when he says, "The people whom I did not know served me, and when their ears heard they obeyed me. Sons of strangers came to me, and halted from their ways." And by Jeremiah: "And I gave her a divorce decree, but covenant-breaking Judah did not fear." And again: "And the house of Israel disregarded me. The house of Judah lied to the Lord."
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Instructor Book 1patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:11
“For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,.... This is a reason why such orders are given to the army of the Chaldeans to ascend the walls of Jerusalem and destroy them; namely, the perfidy both of the ten tribes, signified by the house of Israel; so Abarbinel; and of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, signified by the house of Judah; which was very great, and attended with aggravated circumstances; instances of it follow.”
They have lied about the LORD: Clarke gives the Hebrew of the first claim as lo hu, he is not, a denial that the LORD acts at all. With no judge, they expected no sword or famine. Clarke calls them atheists at heart.
Jeremiah 5:12
“They have belied the Lord - כחשו kichashu. They have denied or disavowed the Lord. It is not he - לוא הוא lo hu, he is not; there is no such being; therefore this evil shall not come upon us. On their premises, this conclusion was just. There is no judge; therefore there shall be no judgment. Thus they denied the Lord. They were atheists at heart.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The prophets are but wind: The mockery of verse 12 continues, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read it, with the people calling the true prophets wind. The word is the Holy Spirit who speaks through prophets, in Maurer's reading. The people wish the prophets' own predictions on them.
Jeremiah 5:13
“Continuation of the unbelieving language of the Jews. the prophets--who prophesy punishment coming on us. the word--the Holy Spirit, who speaks through true prophets, is not in them [MAURER]. Or else, "There is no word (divine communication) in them" (Ho 1:2) [ROSENMULLER]. thus, &c.--Their ill-omened prophecies shall fall on themselves.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 5:14-17
I will make My words a fire in your mouth: Because the people have spoken this word, the LORD makes His words “a fire in your mouth and this people the wood it consumes”. The distant nation is drawn by what a hearer in Jerusalem cannot do, since its language is one “you do not know”.
Jeremiah 5:14
“God owns them for his words, though men denied them, and will as surely make them to take effect as the fire consumes combustible material that is in its way. The word shall be fire and the people wood. Sinners by sin make themselves fuel to that wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men in the scripture.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
an established nation, an ancient nation: Barnes takes the house of Israel here as the whole house of Jacob, with Judah its representative. The word rendered established describes rocks and ever-flowing streams, an empire firm and rolling on. A foreign tongue meant cries for mercy went unheard.
Jeremiah 5:15
“Israel - By these are meant Judah; for Israel were in captivity before: called the house of Israel, not only because they descended from Jacob, but because they were the chief of that stock.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:15
“HENDERSON refers it to the original language of the Babylonians, which, he thinks, they brought with them from their native hills, akin to the Persic, not to the Aramaic, or any other Semitic tongue, the parent of the modern Kurd.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Their quivers are like open graves: The Chaldeans fought with bows, and Gill reads the figure as arrows so deadly that a full quiver swallows men like an open grave. Every archer is a mighty man.
Jeremiah 5:16
“Their quiver is an open sepulchre,.... The Chaldeans used bows and arrows in fighting; and the quiver is a case for arrows; and the phrase denotes, that their arrows would do great execution, and be very mortal; so that a quiver of them would be as devouring as an open grave, into which many dead are cast.”
They will devour your harvest and food: Barnes renders all four verbs as eat: harvest and bread, sons and daughters, sheep and cattle, vines and fig trees. He hears a battering ram in the attack on the fortified cities. Matthew Henry reads it as the curse of Deuteronomy 28.
Jeremiah 5:17
“Or, It shall eat “thine harvest and thy bread:” They shall eat “thy sons and thy daughters.” It shall eat thy sheep and thy cattle: It shall eat “thy vines and thy fig-trees.” They shall impoverish ... - Or, It shall batter thy “fortified cities, wherein thou” trustest, with weapons of war. There is probably reference here to an instrument like a battering-ram, with which the Assyrians beat down the walls of their enemies.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:17
“But it is a grievous vexation to see it devoured by strangers and enemies, to see their camps victualled with our stores, while those that are dear to us are perishing for want of it: this also is according to the curse of the law, Deut. xxviii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 5:18-19
The limit named twice in the book returns a third time, “I will not make a full end of you”, before the exile is explained. The people will ask why the LORD has done all these things.
Jeremiah 5:18
“Nevertheless, in those days,.... When these things should be done by the king of Babylon and his army: saith the Lord, I will not make a full end with you: this was to be done at another time, not now; See Gill on Jer 4:27, Jer 5:10, though some think that this is a threatening of more and greater calamities; that this would not be all he would do to them; he had not yet done; he had other evils and calamities, to bring upon them, particularly a long captivity.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:18
God, who judges "little by little," gives to those being chastised room for repentance, and does not, in punishing at the very moment of sin, bring the full completion of the punishment upon the one who has sinned. For this reason, "judging little by little," he chastises. And an example of this is in Leviticus; for in the curses against those who transgress the Law it is written, after the earlier punishments: "And it shall be, if after these things you do not turn back, says the Lord, I too will add to you seven plagues."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Jeremiah 7patristic
served foreign gods in your land: The people's question assumes innocence. Barnes stresses the setting: the gods were served in a land consecrated to the LORD, and those who served them would be slaves of foreigners.
Jeremiah 5:19
“The reason why God so chastises His people. As they in a land especially consecrated to Yahweh had served “strange” (i. e., foreign gods, so shall they in a land belonging to others be the slaves of strangers.”
Sand Bounds the Sea, but This People Has a Revolting Heart
Jeremiah 5:20-25
Declare this in the house of Jacob: A people “who have eyes but do not see” stands before the LORD who “set the sand as the boundary for the sea”. The sea keeps its bound while the people have “turned aside and gone away”. Rain and harvest are lost: “Your iniquities have diverted these from you”.
Jeremiah 5:20
“Against the God (1) of Creation Jer 5:22, and (2) of Providence Jer 5:24, They sin, not merely by apostasy, but by a general immorality extending to all classes Jer 5:25-28. It is in this immorality that their idolatry has its root. Jer 5:22 The sea is the symbol of restless and indomitable energy, chafing against all resistance, and dashing to pieces the works whereby man endeavors to restrain its fury. Yet God has imposed upon it laws which it must obey, and keeps it in its appointed place, not by barriers of iron but by a belt of sand.”
O foolish and senseless people: Gill notes that senseless is literally without heart, the heart standing for understanding. Eyes that fail to see and ears that fail to hear make the people like the idols of Psalm 115:4, which Gill cites. Their worship shaped them.
Jeremiah 5:21
“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding,.... or, "heart" (a); See Gill on Jer 4:22, which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not; like the idols they served, Psa 115:4. this is an upbraiding of them with their folly and stupidity, their want of common sense, their blindness and ignorance; notwithstanding they had the means of light and knowledge, the law, and the prophets. (a) ואין לב "et non cor", Pagninus, Montanus; "qui non habes cor", V. L. "excors", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "cui cor non est", Cocceius.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:21
“Not understanding him who had been anointed and sent and who was the author of such wonderful works, they returned to their usual ways and talked about him in a foolish and vain way. For although they wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth, yet their wish was to treat them as valueless. They said, "Is not this the son of Joseph?" But what does this diminish from the glory of the worker of the miracles?”
Cyril of Alexandria · written before 444 · Commentary on Luke, Homily 12patristic
the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea: The sea is held in place by sand, a barrier of loose grains, as Clarke observes. Barnes sees the sea as restless energy chafing against every limit, and still it keeps its bound. The waves roar and stay.
Jeremiah 5:22
“Which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea - What can I not do, who confine the sea, that enormous mass of waters, and prevent it from overflowing the earth; not by immense mountains and rocks, but by the sand, no particle of which is in cohesion with another? The most tremendous waves cannot displace nor pass over this simple barrier.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
stubborn and rebellious hearts: Gill sets the people beside the sea of the verse before: the waves keep their bound, and Judah turns aside and goes away. The Targum reads gone away as departing from the worship of the LORD. The sea obeys and the people wander.
Jeremiah 5:23
“They are not so obedient as the sea and its waves; nor so firm and stable as the sand that is set for the bound of it. This is a reproof and an aggravation of the revoltings and rebellions of this people: they are revolted and gone; they had departed from the ways of the Lord, and were gone back from his worship, as the Targum; and were gone into evil ways, and to a false worship; they not only had revolted, but they went on, they continued therein, and went further and further, off from God and his worship.”
who gives the rains, both autumn and spring: Clarke places the autumn rain in the northern parts about the end of September and the spring rain in March and April, before harvest. The appointed weeks of harvest fell between Passover and Pentecost. Spurgeon notes how wholly the farming of Palestine hung on those rains.
Jeremiah 5:24
“Giveth rain, both the former and the latter - See the note on Jer 3:3. The appointed weeks of the harvest - As the early rains fell in the northern parts of Judea about the end of September, in the civil year of the Hebrews, so the latter rains fell before harvest, in the months of March and April. The appointed weeks of the harvest were those which fell between the passover and pentecost. In the southern parts the harvest was earlier than in the northern.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:24
“SUCH are the climate and soil of Palestine, that all agricultural operations are most manifestly dependent upon the periodical rainfall. Hence the people speak of the weather and the crops with a more immediate reference to God than is usual with us. It is said that the common expressions of the peasantry are such as quite strike travelers with their apparently devout recognition of the Almighty agency.”
Your iniquities have diverted these from you: The loss named here is the rain and harvest of verse 24. Jerome adds that the hand of the LORD is unshortened, and sin itself turned the good things away to others. The bounty remains his to give.
Jeremiah 5:25
“Your iniquities have turned away these things - When these appointed weeks of harvest do not come, should we not examine and see whether this be not in God’s judgments? Have not our iniquities turned away these good things from us?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:25
“Your iniquities have turned away these things,.... Whereas of late years rain was withheld from them in common, and they had not the former and latter rain in its season, nor the appointed weeks of the harvest, and so their land was barren, and famine ensued.”
Jeremiah 5:26-29
For among My people are wicked men: The charge turns to the traps set by wicked men: “Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit”. Their wealth rests on the predation the law forbids. Men grown fat have not taken up “the cause of the fatherless” or defended “the rights of the needy”.
Jeremiah 5:26
“They catch - Such a trap did Jezebel lay for Naboth, 1 Kings xxi, 9, 10. Such an one was that conspiracy of more than forty men against Paul, Acts xxiii, 13-15.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Like cages full of birds: Clarke takes the cage as a decoy cage, stocked with tame birds that lure wild ones into the snare. Gill reports that the Targum reads it as a pen for fattening fowl. The houses fill with deceit and their owners grow rich.
Jeremiah 5:27
“As a cage is full of birds,.... Jarchi and Kimchi understand it of a place in which fowls, are brought up and fattened, what we call a "pen"; and, so the Targum renders it, a house or place of fattening. The word is rendered a "basket" in Amo 8:1 and may here design one in which birds taken in snares, or by hawking, were put. The Septuagint version, and those that follow it, render it, "a snare": which agrees with what goes before.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 5:27
“As a cage is full of birds - There is no doubt that the reference here is to a decoy or trap-cage, as Dr. Blayney has rendered it; in these the fowlers put several tame birds, which when the wild ones see, they come and light on the cage, and fall into the snare.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
They have grown fat and sleek: The wealth of verse 27 shows on their bodies, fat and sleek. Their prosperity comes from cases left unjudged. Jerome notes that much of the passage is missing from the Septuagint, and he gives the needy as the poor or the widow.
Jeremiah 5:28
They judge not the cause, yet they prosper - Perhaps we might be justified in translating, “And shall they prosper?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The refrain of verse 9 closes the second charge as it closed the first. The first charge was adultery and false oaths; the second is the fowler's trap and the cause of the fatherless left unjudged. Jerome renders avenge as the vengeance of the LORD's own soul.
Jeremiah 5:29
“Shall I not visit for these things?.... See Gill on Jer 5:9.”
Jeremiah 5:30-31
A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The verdict names three failures: “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority”, and “My people love it so”. The corruption is chosen by the people as well as suffered from above. The closing question, “but what will you do in the end?”, is left open.
Jeremiah 5:30
“A wonderful and horrible thing is committed on the land - Dahler translates: “Strange crimes and horrible trespasses have been committed in the land.” These have been already detailed; but this may refer to what follows.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The prophets prophesy falsely: Clarke reads the prophets as predicting favorable things to please both the princes and the people. He takes the priests as ruling with the backing of the false prophets, kept in their places and fed from the LORD's house. The people love it so.
Jeremiah 5:31
“The prophets prophesy falsely - The false prophets predict favorable things, that they may please both the princes and the people. The priests bear rule by their means - The false prophets affording them all that their influence and power can procure, to enable them to keep their places, and feed on the riches of the Lord’s house. And my people love to have it so - Are perfectly satisfied with this state of things, because they are permitted to continue in their sins without reproof or restraint. The prophets and the priests united to deceive and ruin the people.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Athanasius of Alexandria, FESTAL LETTERS 2:2; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Charles Spurgeon; Cyprian, Treatise V. An Address to Demetrianus 7; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.