Jeremiah

Chapter 5

No One Is Just and Judgment Proclaimed

Jeremiah 5 opens with a search through Jerusalem for even one person who does justice and seeks truth, and the search fails from poor to great alike. The chapter then unfolds God's case against the nation: foreign invasion is coming, not as total annihilation but as measured judgment on a people who neither fear the LORD nor defend the vulnerable, while false prophets and complicit priests leave the whole land corrupted.

After the warning and lament of Jeremiah 4, this chapter explains why the threatened judgment is righteous by showing how deeply dishonesty and rebellion have penetrated Jerusalem. It also sharpens Jeremiah's book-long argument that public injustice, false religion, and refusal to fear God belong to the same moral collapse.

2 sections·274 words·~1 min read

Begin reading Zoom into first section

Reader

Jeremiah 5

A continuous BSB reading flow. Turn on the guide when you want authored orientation; leave it off when you simply want the text.

vv. 1-13

No One Is Just

Open section

“¹Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. ²Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ ³O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?

⁴Then I said, “They are only the poor; ⁵I will go to the powerful ⁶Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down,

⁷“Why should I forgive you? ⁸They are well-fed, lusty stallions, ⁹Should I not punish them for these things?”

¹⁰Go up through her vineyards and ravage them, ¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah ¹²They have lied about the LORD and said: ¹³The prophets are but wind,

vv. 14-31

Judgment Proclaimed

Open section

T¹⁴herefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts says: ¹⁵Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, ¹⁶Their quivers are like open graves; ¹⁷They will devour your harvest and food; ¹⁸“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.

¹⁹And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’” ²⁰Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah: ²¹“Hear this, ²²Do you not fear Me?” ²³But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. ²⁴They have not said in their hearts, ²⁵Your iniquities have diverted these from you;

²⁶For among My people are wicked men; ²⁷Like cages full of birds, ²⁸They have grown fat and sleek, ²⁹Should I not punish them for these things?” ³⁰A horrible and shocking thing ³¹The prophets prophesy falsely,

Section map

Open the closer view when you want it.

Each section keeps the passage focused, adds summaries and cross references, and gives verse-level links.