5:1 Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see
now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if ye can find
a man, if there is [any] that executeth judgment, that
seeketh the truth; and I will pardon a it.
(a) That is, the city.
5:2 And though they say, The b LORD liveth; surely they swear
falsely.
(b) Though they pretend religion and holiness, yet all is
but hypocrisy: for under this kind of swearing is
contained the true religion.
5:3 O LORD, [are] not thy eyes upon the c truth? thou hast
d stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast
consumed them, [but] they have refused to receive
correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock;
they have refused to return.
(c) Do you not love uprightness and faithful dealing?
(d) You have often punished them, but all is in vain,
(Isa 9:13).
5:5 I will go to the e great men, and will speak to them; for
they have known the way of the LORD, [and] the judgment of
their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, [and]
burst the bonds.
(e) He speaks this to the reproach of them who would govern
and teach others, and yet are farther out of the way
than the simple people.
5:6 Wherefore a f lion from the forest shall slay them, [and]
a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall
watch over their cities: every one that goeth out from there
shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are
many, [and] their backslidings are increased.
(f) Meaning, Nebuchadnezzar and his army.
5:7 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken
me, and g sworn by [them that are] no gods: when I had fed
them to the full, then they committed adultery, and
assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.
(g) He shows that to swear by anything other than by God is
to forsake him.
5:10h Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a
full end: i take away her battlements; for they [are] not
the LORD'S.
(h) He commands the Babylonians and enemies to destroy
them.
(i) Read (Jer 4:27).
5:12 They have k lied about the LORD, and said, [It is] not
he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see
sword nor famine:
(k) Because they gave no credit to the words of his
prophets, as in (Isa 28:15).
5:13 And the prophets shall become l wind, and the word [is]
m not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
(l) Their words will be of no effect, but vain.
(m) They are not sent from the Lord, and therefore that
which they threaten to us will come on them.
5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye
speak this word, behold, I will make my words in n thy
mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
(n) Meaning, Jeremiah.
5:15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you o from far, O house of
Israel, saith the LORD: it [is] a mighty nation, it [is] an
ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not,
neither understandest what they say.
(o) That is, the Babylonians and Chaldeans.
5:16 Their quiver [is] as an p open sepulchre, they [are] all
mighty men.
(p) Who will kill many with their arrows.
5:18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make
a full end with q you.
(q) Here the Lord declares his unspeakable favour toward
his Church, as in (Jer 4:27).
5:19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why doeth the
LORD our God all these [things] to us? then shalt r thou
answer them, As ye have forsaken me, and served foreign
gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land
[that is] not yours.
(r) Meaning, the prophet Jeremiah.
5:25 Your s iniquities have turned away these [things], and
your sins have withheld good [things] from you.
(s) If there is any stay, that we receive not God's
blessings in abundance, we must consider that it is for
our own iniquities, (Isa 59:1,2).
5:28 They have become fat, they shine: yea, they exceed the
deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of
the fatherless, yet they t prosper; and the right of the
needy do they not judge.
(t) They feel not the plague of God for it.
5:31 The u prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear
rule by their means; and my people love [to have it] so:
and what will ye do in its end?
(u) Meaning that there could be nothing but disorder, where
the ministers were wicked and corrupt.
