Jeremiah 5:25-29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Your iniquities have turned away these things See note on Jeremiah 3:3. For among my people are found wicked men I need not search for such among the heathen nations, for they are easily found among them that are called by my name. They lay wait, &c. They use all the arts of fraud and cunning, that they may overreach others, and make a prey of them and their substance. They set a trap, they catch men Such a trap did Jezebel lay for Naboth, 1 Kings 21:9-10. Such a one was that conspiracy of more than forty men against Paul, Acts 23:13-15. As a cage is full of birds, &c. As in the foregoing words they were compared to a hunter, or a fowler, who takes beasts or birds in snares; so here, carrying on the same similitude, he describes their houses as cages full of birds, that is, of goods gotten by robbery and fraudful arts. They are waxen fat, they shine Or, so fat that they shine. By living at ease, and bathing themselves in all the delights of sense, they look so fair and gay that every body admires them. Yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked “They exceed the common instances of injustice and oppression, and make no conscience of enriching themselves with the spoils of the fatherless, and those who have most need of their charity and kindness.” Lowth. Waterland renders the clause, “Yea, they have exceeded all expression of wickedness; or, have been wicked beyond expression.” Shall I not visit, &c. See note on Jeremiah 5:9.