Jeremiah 5 Footnotes

5:1 The Lord promised to forgive Jerusalem if the prophet could find one faithful person in the city. The terms are reminiscent of those given to Abraham in the case of Sodom (Gn 18:32), when ten righteous people would have spared the city. Jerusalem was given more generous terms yet could not meet them.

5:30-31 Jeremiah saw a “horrible thing” in the land. The sources of divine revelation had become corrupted; neither prophets nor priests were giving words that came from the Lord, but only their own ideas. Even worse, the people liked it that way and shared in the guilt of their leaders. They would have no recourse when the Lord’s judgment came “at the end of it” (6:16-17; 29:31-32; see note on Lm 1:5).