This calamity Judah is preparing for itself by its obduracy and excess of wickedness. - Jeremiah 5:19. "And if ye then shall say, Wherefore hath Jahveh our God done all this unto us? then say to them, Like as ye have forsaken me and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. Jeremiah 5:20. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, Jeremiah 5:21. Hear now this, foolish people without understanding, that have eyes and see not, have ears and hear not. Jeremiah 5:22. Me will ye not fear, saith Jahve, nor tremble before me? who have set the sand for a bound to the sea, an everlasting boundary that it passes not, and its waves toss themselves and cannot, and roar and pass not over. Jeremiah 5:23. But this people hath a stubborn and rebellious heart; they turned away and went. Jeremiah 5:24. And said not in their heart: Let us now fear Jahveh our God, who giveth rain, the early rain and the late rain, in its season; who keepeth for us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Jeremiah 5:25. Your iniquities have turned away these, and your sins have withholden the good from you. Jeremiah 5:26. For among my people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as fowlers stoop; they set a trap, they catch men. Jeremiah 5:27. As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; therefore are they become great and rich. Jeremiah 5:28. They are grown fat and sleek, they go beyond bound in wickedness; the cause they try not, the cause of the orphans, that they might have prosperity; and the right of the needy they judge not. Jeremiah 5:29. Shall I not punish this? saith Jahveh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a people as this? Jeremiah 5:30. The appalling and horrible is done in the land. Jeremiah 5:31. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule under their lead, and my people loves it so. But what will ye do in the end thereof."

The thought of Jeremiah 5:19, that the people, by its apostasy, draws down this judgment on itself, forms the transition from the threat of punishment to the reproof of sins. The penalty corresponds to the sin. Because Judah in its own land serves the gods of foreigners, so it must serve strangers in a foreign land.

Jeremiah 5:25 Parallel Commentaries

See on ch.

Jeremiah 2:17-19 Have you not procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way...

Jeremiah 3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you had a whore's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

Deuteronomy 28:23,24 And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you shall be iron...

Psalm 107:17,34 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted...

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Lamentations 3:39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

Lamentations 4:22 The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity...