YHWH Gives His Reasons Why Jerusalem Will Not Be Pardoned And Jeremiah Makes A Vain Search For A Righteous Man (Jeremiah 5:1-9).
YHWH now vindicates His decision to bring inevitable judgment. He assures Jeremiah that if he can produce but one person in Jerusalem who does what is right and genuinely seeks truth He will pardon Jerusalem. In response Jeremiah admits that in spite of YHWH's efforts they have all refused to respond. Then he begins his search for a righteous and true man, and finally convinced that such is not to be found among the common people he determines to look among the great men, for, he says, they surely know the way of YHWH and the Law of God. But even there he has to admit failure. As a result he recognises that it is reasonable that they be subjected to the curse of a surfeit of wild beasts (Leviticus 26:22).
YHWH then points out why He cannot pardon them. It is because they have forsaken Him and sworn by those who are no-gods, and as a result have indulged excessively in immoral behaviour. Consequently He is going to have to visit them in judgment because they are the very kind of people on Whom He must be avenged.
“Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
And see now, and know,
And seek in its broad places,
If you can find a man,
If there be any who does justly,
Who seeks truth, and I will pardon her.”
YHWH challenges Jeremiah and his small group of disciples (‘you' - plural) to search throughout Jerusalem in order to discover whether they can find one single person, either in its narrow streets or in its town squares (its broad places), who walks in righteousness and genuinely seeks truth. And He promises that if they can find just one (presumably outside of Jeremiah's own circle of disciples) He will pardon Jerusalem. It is being made clear that things had reached a very low ebb spiritually. It was an indication of just how very few righteous people there were I Jeremiah's day. In Elijah's time there had been seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). How Jeremiah must have envied him so many. In Isaiah's day there had been a small group of disciples (Isaiah 8:16). We can compare this with YHWH's promise to Abraham that if he found ten righteous men in Sodom He would withhold His judgment from them (Genesis 18:32). It is a firm reminder of the prevalence of sin and unbelief in the days of Jeremiah. It would take the Exile to bring some of them to their senses, and it helps to explain why YHWH had to be so severe with Judah.
“And though they say, ‘As YHWH lives', surely they swear falsely.”
One evidence of their depravity was that they were able to swear ‘as YHWH lives', no doubt very brazenly, while all the time they were swearing falsely and perverting justice. In other words they were treating the Name of YHWH as though He had no knowledge of what they were doing, or as if He counted for nothing.
‘O YHWH, do not your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved, you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction, they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return.'
Jeremiah then confirmed that what YHWH set His eyes on, was also what was true, and that He was quite right in what He had said. And this had been proved with Judah by the fact that when YHWH had chastened them they were not grieved, a sign of their hardened consciences. Furthermore even when He had consumed some of their number they had refused to receive correction. In other words whatever He had done they had made their faces harder than rock, and had refused to return to Him no matter what He did.
‘Then I said, “Surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they do not know the way of YHWH, nor the law of their God.”
Then Jeremiah got to thinking. Perhaps the reason why these people had not responded was because they were the ‘poor and foolish' who did not know the way of YHWH or the Law of God. In other words that their sin and lack of response might be due to their ignorance of YHWH's requirements.
“I will get myself to the great men, and will speak to them, for they know the way of YHWH, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.'
So he decided that he would go to the great men, and speak to them. Surely they would know the way of YHWH and the Law of their God. But he found that with one accord they had deliberately taken off the yoke of YHWH, and had burst what they considered to be the bonds of the Law of their God. They had wanted to be free of any restraint, and had thrown off YHWH's Lordship.
‘For which reason a lion out of the forest will slay them, a wolf of the evenings (or ‘of the plains') will destroy them, a leopard will watch against their cities, every one who goes out from there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.'
Because of their proven hardness of heart YHWH would remove His protection from them. And this would result in an infestation of the land by wild beasts, in accordance with the curse found in Leviticus 26:22, which in itself would, if they did not repent, be a preliminary to invasion, subjection to the sword, terrible siege conditions and their final exclusion from the land (Leviticus 26:23-33). This was therefore a signal of what was to come.
Wild beasts were a constant problem in Palestine in those days, as lions, wolves and leopards roved the land, something that would be especially prevalent when conditions resulted in the land being unattended (compare 2 Kings 17:25) as would often happen in turbulent times. Note how the wild beasts are to be found everywhere, in the forests (of which there were still many), in the plains (rather than ‘evenings', as it is paralleled with ‘forests') and lurking by the wayside. Thus because of the increase of their transgressions and backslidings (obstinacy) many would be torn by wild animals (Leviticus 26:22). But the wild beasts are but a prelude to other wild beasts consisting of human armies which will also hunt them down.
The Reason Why YHWH Cannot Pardon Them.
“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by those who are no gods.”
YHWH then takes up the conversation asking how He can possibly pardon them when their children have forsaken Him and instead of swearing ‘as YHWH lives' have sworn by those who do not live and are no-gods.
-8 “When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' house. They were as fed horses roaming at large, every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.”
Furthermore when He had given them full stomachs they committed adultery and went ‘in troops' to frequent the houses of prostitutes, the singular representing each harlot's house. They were like well-fed horses, roaming around at large, neighing for their neighbour's wife. Prostitution and rampant sex were prominent parts of Canaanite religion as the idea was that by indulging in open sex before the gods they encouraged the fertility gods to give them fertile fields. But it was strictly contrary to the Law of YHWH.
Others see ‘the harlot's house' as having in mind what they had made of the Temple. They had turned it from being the house of YHWH into the house of Asherah with her train of cult prostitutes
“Shall I not visit for these things?” says YHWH, ‘and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”
YHWH's conclusion was that He had no choice but to visit them in judgment, and, with His soul stirred by their sinfulness, to be ‘avenged' on them for their sin and unfaithfulness. Notice how this refrain is repeated again in Jeremiah 5:29, bringing out the unity of the section, and emphasising the certainty of the judgment.