6 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, [and] their backsliding is increased.
Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They leave nothing until the next day.
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
Her princes in the midst of it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, [and] to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies prosper; For Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: Her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's cubs, and no one made them afraid? The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey.
"Woe to you who desire the day of Yahweh! Why do you long for the day of Yahweh? It is darkness, And not light. As if a man fled from a lion, And a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, And a snake bit him.
Therefore am I to them like a lion; Like a leopard I will lurk by the path. I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, And will tear the covering of their heart. And there I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.
For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.
After this I saw, and, behold, another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the animal had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.
You have built your lofty place at the head of every way, and have made your beauty an abomination, and have opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your prostitution.
though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate. Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and animal; though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered themselves. Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal; though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, they should deliver neither son nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. For thus says the Lord Yahweh: How much more when I send my four sore judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil animals, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and animal!
Behold, you are risen up in your fathers' place, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of Yahweh toward Israel.
Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand before me?
All your lovers have forgotten you; they don't seek you: for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased.
He has left his covert, as the lion; for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing [sword], and because of his fierce anger.
It shall happen, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall tell you, Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God? Then shall you tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to me:
Though our iniquities testify against us, work you for your name's sake, Yahweh; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through? Yahweh says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;
Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?
The young lions have roared on him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant.
You make darkness, and it is night, In which all the animals of the forest prowl.
Ezra the priest stood up, and said to them, You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 5
Commentary on Jeremiah 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
Reproof for sin and threatenings of judgment are intermixed in this chapter, and are set the one over against the other: judgments are threatened, that the reproofs of sin might be the more effectual to bring them to repentance; sin is discovered, that God might be justified in the judgments threatened.
This was the scope and purport of Jeremiah's preaching in the latter end of Josiah's reign and the beginning of Jehoiakim's; but the success of it did not answer expectation.
Jer 5:1-9
Here is,
Jer 5:10-19
We may observe in these verses, as before,
Jer 5:20-24
The prophet, having reproved them for sin and threatened the judgments of God against them, is here sent to them again upon another errand, which he must publish in Judah; the purport of it is to persuade them to fear God, which would be an effectual principle of their reformation, as the want of that fear had been at the bottom of their apostasy.
Jer 5:25-31
Here,