Jeremiah 5:26
in Jeremiah 5For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
KJV
For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
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This verse in Jeremiah 5
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Verse 26.) Because there were found among my people wicked ones plotting like bird catchers, setting snares and traps to capture men; like a net full of birds, so is their house full of deceit. Why did a temporary and late rain deviate from them, and all good things not come? The reasons are given: because there were found among his people wicked ones. He did not say, the unjust and sinners (as the new heresy wants), but the wicked. Impiety openly denies God; if it confesses error iniquity and sin, it easily turns God to mercy.
This site's exposition
For among My people are wicked men
on Jeremiah 5:26-29
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”.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
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.
They are sleek and smooth: The shine; they look fair and gay; every body admires them. And they pass by matters of evil (so some read the following words); they escape the evils which one would expect their sins should bring upon them; they are not in trouble as other men, much less as we might expect bad men," Ps. lxxiii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
For among my people are found wicked men,....
They were spiteful and malicious. Such are properly wicked men, men that delight in doing mischief. They were found (that is, caught) in the very act of their wickedness.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
They lay wait, as he that setteth snares - A metaphor taken from fowlers, who, having fixed their nets, lie down and keep out of sight, that when birds come, they may be ready to draw and entangle them.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| נִמְצְא֥וּ | nimtzeu | they are found | H4672 → | 455 times |
| בְעַמִּ֖י | veami | among people my | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| רְשָׁעִ֑ים | reshaim | wicked [people] | H7563 → | 263 times |
| יָשׁוּר֙ | yashur | he watches | H7789 → | |
| כְּשַׁ֣ךְ | keshakh | as bend | H7918 → | |
| יְקוּשִׁ֔ים | yekushim | fowlers | H3353 → | |
| הִצִּ֥יבוּ | hitzivu | they set | H5324 → | |
| מַשְׁחִ֖ית | mashchit | a destroyer | H4889 → | |
| אֲנָשִׁ֥ים | ʾanashim | people | H582 → | 566 times |
| יִלְכֹּֽדוּ׃ | yilkodu | they catch | H3920 → | 121 times |
כִּי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
נִמְצְא֥וּthey are found
nimtzeuH4672 →455 times
בְעַמִּ֖יamong people my
veamiH5971 →1873 times
רְשָׁעִ֑יםwicked [people]
reshaimH7563 →263 times
יָשׁוּר֙he watches
yashurH7789 →
כְּשַׁ֣ךְas bend
keshakhH7918 →
יְקוּשִׁ֔יםfowlers
yekushimH3353 →
הִצִּ֥יבוּthey set
hitzivuH5324 →
מַשְׁחִ֖יתa destroyer
mashchitH4889 →
אֲנָשִׁ֥יםpeople
ʾanashimH582 →566 times
יִלְכֹּֽדוּ׃they catch
yilkoduH3920 →121 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 64:5They hold fast to their evil purpose; they speak of hiding their snares. “Who will see them?” they say.
it leads to
- Psalms 140:5
The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me. Selah
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 10:11
He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
- Ezekiel 8:12
“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are…
- Job 22:13
Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?
- Psalms 140:5
Through
Jeremiah 18:22Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 6:26
O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
- Jeremiah 25:34–36
Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.
- Jeremiah 6:26
Through
Proverbs 1:11If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,
it leads to
- Proverbs 1:18
But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.
- Proverbs 12:6
The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
- Proverbs 1:18
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.