Jeremiah 5:14-31·~1 min

Judgment Proclaimed

Because the people mock prophetic words, the LORD makes Jeremiah's speech like fire and the people like wood to be consumed. A distant, ancient nation will come and devour harvest, children, flocks, vines, and fortified cities, though even then God will not make a complete end.

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.

When the people ask why this has happened, the answer is that serving foreign gods in their own land will become service to foreigners elsewhere. They are blind and deaf before the God who fixed the sea's boundary and gives rain and harvest, and their sins have turned those good gifts away.

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;

Among God's people are trap-setting wicked men who grow rich and sleek while neglecting the cause of the fatherless and the rights of the needy. The chapter ends with a horrible thing: prophets lie, priests rule by their own authority, and the people love it, even as judgment stands ready over them.

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 summaryThe chapter's second section answers the people's unbelief with a firm word from the LORD: foreign invasion will devour the land's ordinary life, and exile will mirror their own choice to serve strangers. Yet the indictment goes deeper than war alone, because this is a people who see creation's order and still do not fear God, while wicked men grow rich, ignore justice, and sustain a public order where false prophecy and priestly power are welcomed.

Role in the chapterThis section expands the case from denied judgment to announced sentence and moral explanation. It makes clear that invasion is not arbitrary but the outward form of a deeper spiritual and social refusal to live under the LORD's rule.