Jeremiah 5: Run Ye To and Fro Through the Streets
Searching for one just person, a people grown fat, and prophets who lie
"Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it" (5:1).
"Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD… I will get me unto the great men… but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds" (vv. 4–5).
"Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not me?… which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree" (vv. 21–22). "For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares… They are waxen fat, they shine… they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge" (vv. 26–28).
"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; The 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 the end thereof?" (vv. 30–31).
| Verses | What it says | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| 5:1–3 | Search the streets for one person who does justice and seeks truth; they swear falsely; they refused correction | Compare Genesis 18:23–32 (Sodom) and Diogenes' lamp (later). |
| 5:4–6 | The poor do not know; the great have broken the yoke; lion, wolf and leopard will tear them | Three predators for the invader. |
| 5:7–9 | Sated, they committed adultery; stallions neighing after neighbors' wives | Literal and covenant infidelity together. |
| 5:10–13 | Strip her branches; "It is not he; no evil will come"; the prophets are wind | Lo hu, "not he": denial that God acts. |
| 5:14–17 | My words a fire in your mouth; a nation from afar, ancient, of unknown language, eats harvest, sons, flocks, vines; breaks fortified cities | Compare Deuteronomy 28:49–52. |
| 5:18–19 | Prose: not a full end; you served foreign gods in your land, you will serve strangers in a land not yours | An explanation of exile. |
| 5:20–25 | Eyes but not seeing; the sea kept by sand; they do not fear the God who gives rain in season | Creation obeys; the people do not. |
| 5:26–29 | Fowlers' traps; houses full of deceit; fat and sleek; no justice for the orphan and the needy | Social crime as the cause of judgment. |
| 5:30–31 | Prophets lie, priests rule by their hand, and the people love it | The book's summary indictment. |
"A nation whose language thou knowest not"
The Babylonian army spoke Akkadian and Aramaic, the international language of the period (2 Kings 18:26 shows Judah's officials knew Aramaic; the common people did not). "A language you do not know" was a stock image of foreign invasion (Deuteronomy 28:49; Isaiah 28:11).
Eyes that do not see
5:21 echoes Isaiah 6:9–10 and Psalm 115:5–6 (idols with eyes that do not see). Mark 8:18 has Jesus say to his disciples, "Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark's report), an allusion shared by several prophetic texts rather than a quotation of one.
Justice for the orphan
5:28 names the orphan and the needy, the classic categories of Israel's law (Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18) and of royal ideology across the ancient Near East (Hammurabi's prologue promises justice "so that the strong might not oppress the weak"). Jeremiah's later oracles to the kings (22:3, 16) make it the test of a true ruler.
What the evidence shows
- Jeremiah 5:1 asks for even one person who does justice.
- Mark 8:18 alludes to the "eyes but not seeing" tradition of Jeremiah 5:21 and Isaiah 6.
- Aramaic was the international language of the Babylonian period.
More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- For the sake of ten righteous.
- A nation from far whose tongue you do not understand.
- "Having eyes, see ye not?"