---
title: "Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 1"
author: "John Calvin"
translator: "John Owen"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 85 of 89
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/85/
cite: "John Calvin, tr. John Owen, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 1, section 85. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/85/"
---

# Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Volume 1

*John Calvin, tr. John Owen*

Calvin on Jeremiah and Lamentations, volume 1 of 5.

## 85. Chapter 5

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/85/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-jeremiah-and-lamentations-volume-1/85/#p-N

[¶0] 1 Go round through the streets of Jerusalem, And see, I pray, and know, Inquire also in its cross-ways, Whether ye shall find a man, Whether there be any, who doeth judgment, Who seeketh the truth, And I will spare it. (1:252)

[¶1] 2 Though they say, “Live does Jehovah;” Yet in this they swear falsely.

[¶2] 3 Jehovah! are not thine eyes on the truth? Thou hast smitten them, But they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, But they have not received correction: They have made their faces harder than a rock, They have refused to return.

[¶3] 4 But I said, Surely the poor are these; They have acted foolishly, Because they knew not the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God:

[¶4] 5 I will go to the great and speak to them, For they know the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God: But these have altogether broken the yoke, They have burst the bonds.

[¶5] 6 Therefore smite them shall the lion from the forest, The wolf of the desert shall spoil them, The leopard shall watch over their cities; Whosoever goeth out shall be torn: For manifold are their transgressions, Increased are their defections.

[¶6] 7 How for this shall I spare thee? Thy children have forsaken me, And have sworn by one that is not a god; When I fully satisfied them, they committed adultery, And at the house of the harlot they assembled:

[¶7] 8 Fed horses! rising early in the morning, Every one at his neighbor’s wife neigheth.

[¶8] 9 Should I not for these things visit? saith Jehovah, And on such a nation as this Shall not my soul be avenged?

[¶9] 10 Ascend her walls and demolish, But an end make not; Take away her foundations, For they are not Jehovah’s:

[¶10] 11 For by transgressing they have transgressed against me, The house of Israel and the house of Judah saith Jehovah.

[¶11] 12 They have denied Jehovah and said, “He is not, and come on us shall no evil; Yea, the sword and the famine we shall not see:

[¶12] 13 And the prophets shall be wind, For the word is not in them: Thus shall it be done to them.”

[¶13] 14 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, — Because you have uttered this word, Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them:

[¶14] 15 Behold I will bring on you a nation from far, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah, A strong nation, an ancient nation, A nation whose language thou knowest not, And understandest not what it says: (1:286)

[¶15] 16 Their quiver is like an open sepulcher, All of them are valiant;

[¶16] 17 And they will devour thy harvest and thy bread; They will devour thy sons and thy daughters, They will devour thy flocks and thy herds, They will devour thy vine and thy fig-tree; To want shall they reduce thy fortified cities, To which thou trustest, by the sword:

[¶17] 18 But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make with you an end.

[¶18] 19 And it shall be, when ye say, “Why hath Jehovah our God done to us All these things?” that thou wilt say to them, — As ye have forsaken me, And served foreign gods in your land, So shall ye serve foreigners in a land not your own.

[¶19] 20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, And publish it in Judah, saying, —

[¶20] 21 Hear this, I pray, Ye foolish people and void of heart, Who have eyes and see not, Who have ears and hear not:

[¶21] 22 Will ye not fear me? saith Jehovah; Will ye not at my presence tremble? Who have set the sand a bound to the sea, By a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it; Though its waves rage, yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.

[¶22] 23 But this people hath a perverse and rebellious heart; They have turned aside and departed:

[¶23] 24 And they have not said in their heart, — Let us now fear Jehovah our God, Who giveth rain, both the early And the latter shower in its season, Who keeps to us the appointed weeks of harvest.

[¶24] 25 Your iniquities have prevented these things, And your sins have restrained good from you.

[¶25] 26 For found among my people are the wicked; They look, as though they would set snares; A trap they set, in which they catch men. (1:303)

[¶26] 27 As a cage is full of birds So their houses are full of fraud: Therefore they are increased and become rich;

[¶27] 28 They are become fat, they shine; They even surpass the deeds of the wicked: The cause they judge not, The cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; And the judgment of the poor they judge not. (1:306)

[¶28] 29 Shall I not for this visit, saith Jehovah? On such a nation as this Shall not my soul be avenged?

[¶29] 30 A monstrosity and baseness is in the land!

[¶30] 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their means; (1:309) And my people wish it to be so: But what will ye do at the end of it?