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5. Not One Is Upright

¹ “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,
   look around and consider,
   search through her squares.
If you can find but one person
   who deals honestly and seeks the truth,
   I will forgive this city.
² Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’
   still they are swearing falsely.”

    ³ LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
   You struck them, but they felt no pain;
   you crushed them, but they refused correction.
They made their faces harder than stone
   and refused to repent.
⁴ I thought, “These are only the poor;
   they are foolish,
for they do not know the way of the LORD,
   the requirements of their God.
⁵ So I will go to the leaders
   and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the LORD,
   the requirements of their God.”
But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke
   and torn off the bonds.
⁶ Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them,
   a wolf from the desert will ravage them,
a leopard will lie in wait near their towns
   to tear to pieces any who venture out,
for their rebellion is great
   and their backslidings many.

    ⁷ “Why should I forgive you?
   Your children have forsaken me
   and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I supplied all their needs,
   yet they committed adultery
   and thronged to the houses of prostitutes.
⁸ They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
   each neighing for another man’s wife.
⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?

    ¹⁰ “Go through her vineyards and ravage them,
   but do not destroy them completely.
Strip off her branches,
   for these people do not belong to the LORD.
¹¹ The people of Israel and the people of Judah
   have been utterly unfaithful to me,” declares the LORD.

    ¹² They have lied about the LORD;
   they said, “He will do nothing!
No harm will come to us;
   we will never see sword or famine.
¹³ The prophets are but wind
   and the word is not in them;
   so let what they say be done to them.”

¹⁴ Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty says:

   “Because the people have spoken these words,
   I will make my words in your mouth a fire
   and these people the wood it consumes.
¹⁵ People of Israel,” declares the LORD,
   “I am bringing a distant nation against you—
an ancient and enduring nation,
   a people whose language you do not know,
   whose speech you do not understand.
¹⁶ Their quivers are like an open grave;
   all of them are mighty warriors.
¹⁷ They will devour your harvests and food,
   devour your sons and daughters;
they will devour your flocks and herds,
   devour your vines and fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
   the fortified cities in which you trust.

¹⁸ “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not destroy you completely. ¹⁹ And when the people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’

    ²⁰ “Announce this to the descendants of Jacob
   and proclaim it in Judah:
²¹ Hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
   who have eyes but do not see,
   who have ears but do not hear:
²² Should you not fear me?” declares the LORD.
   “Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
   an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
   they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
²³ But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
   they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say to themselves,
   ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives autumn and spring rains in season,
   who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
²⁵ Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
   your sins have deprived you of good.

    ²⁶ “Among my people are the wicked
   who lie in wait like men who snare birds
   and like those who set traps to catch people.
²⁷ Like cages full of birds,
   their houses are full of deceit;
they have become rich and powerful
    ²⁸ and have grown fat and sleek.
Their evil deeds have no limit;
   they do not seek justice.
They do not promote the case of the fatherless;
   they do not defend the just cause of the poor.
²⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?

    ³⁰ “A horrible and shocking thing
   has happened in the land:
³¹ The prophets prophesy lies,
   the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
   But what will you do in the end?

He continues to speak in a similar way of the cruelty of their enemies; as though he said that victory was already in their hand, for they were the scourges of God. He does not then set before the Jews the troubles of war, but speaks of them as conquered; and he only shews that the Chaldeans would be cruel in the use they would make of their victory. He takes it as granted that the Chaldeans would be conquerors, for they would come armed from above: and he makes this addition, — that they would act cruelly and in an unusual manner towards the vanquished Jews.

Hence he says, They will eat (it will eat, for he changes the number, though the sense remains the same ¹⁴⁶¹⁴⁶     According to the Hebrew, the verbs, except the second, are all in the singular number. The Septuagint have pluralized them, but the singular is retained by the Vulgate, the Targum, and the Syriac. It is the “nation” described in the 15th verse. The second verb may be rendered in a passive sense, and the meaning will be more appropriate, —
   And it will devour thy harvest and thy food, Devoured shall be thy sons and thy daughters; It will devour thy sheep and thy ox, It will devour thy wine and thy fig-tree; It will wholly desolate thy fortified cities, In which thou trustest, by the sword.
   The language used here, and in the 15th verse, is remarkably like that of Moses in Deuteronomy 28:48-52. The second line may be deemed parenthetic. It is better to preserve the poetic singular in sheep, ox, vine, and fig-tree. As it is a reduplicate verb, entire desolation is intended, and that by the “sword” in destroying all the occupants of fortified cities. Venema, and others, as well as Calvin, connect the “sword” with all the preceding clauses; but this is not necessary, nor is it indeed suitable. — Ed. ) thine harvest and thy bread; that is, all that thou gatherest shall become a prey to thine enemies; for by harvest and bread he means every kind of provision. Then he adds, thy sons and thy daughters, which was still worse; it is indeed hard to be deprived of food, but it is still more dreadful for parents to see their children slain before them. The Prophet however says, that such would be the barbarity of their enemies, that they would not spare even boys and girls. He further mentions herds and flocks; and then he adds the vine and the fig-tree; as though he said, nothing would be safe among the Jews, for their enemies would plunder everything, and that being not content with meat and drink, they would kill their very infants. And further, as the Jews had fortified cities, and were on that account insolent towards the prophets, their vain pride is here brought down; for he says, that their fortified cities would be reduced to poverty; and he adds, in which thou trustest All these, he says, shall fall by the sword; for this last word, בחרב, becherab, applies to the whole verse, and to each part of it; as though he had said, “By the right of the sword shall the conquerors lay waste thy whole country, even all thy possessions; yea, and they shall slay thy sons and thy daughters.” It follows —