Run and See If You Can Find a Man
1 “Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her. 2 Though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ surely they swear falsely.” 3 O Yahweh, don’t 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. 4 Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God. 5 I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 6 Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased. 7 “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses. 8 They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife. 9 Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10 “Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not Yahweh’s. 11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh. 12 They have denied Yahweh, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine. 13 The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.” 14 Therefore Yahweh, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them. 15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says Yahweh. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say. 16 Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men. 17 They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword. 18 “But even in those days,” says Yahweh, “I will not make a full end of you. 19 It will happen when you say, ‘Why has Yahweh our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
A search of the whole city for one honest man is authorized as grounds for a pardon, and it fails at both ends of society.
The chapter opens with an offer that is easy to miss because it is phrased as an errand. Run through the streets and squares of Jerusalem; if one man can be found who does justly and seeks truth, then I will pardon her. A city is offered acquittal on the strength of a single righteous inhabitant. The nearest thing to it in Scripture is the negotiation over Sodom, where the number was argued down from fifty to ten Genesis 18:32. Here the number is one, and the search still comes back empty.
Jeremiah's response is a theory, and the theory is generous. These must be the poor, he says — foolish because they have never been taught, ignorant of the way of Yahweh because nobody explained it. So he goes to the great men, who by definition know the law. The result is stated in a single sentence that demolishes his hypothesis. These too, with one accord, have broken the yoke. The failure is not a matter of education or of class. Where knowledge was greatest the rebellion was unanimous. The book has tested the most sympathetic explanation available and discarded it.
The denial being made in the city is quoted directly, and it is a piece of theology rather than a piece of irreligion. It is not he. Evil won't come on us. We won't see sword or famine. The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. This is not a nation that has stopped believing in God. It is a nation that has decided he does not act. History runs on its own, and prophecy is air. The answer turns their own metaphor against them. If the word is only wind, then it will be made fire, and this people the wood.
What that fire is, in political terms, is then described with an accuracy that would have chilled anyone paying attention. A nation from far away, ancient and strong, whose language cannot be understood. The detail about language is what marks it as beyond the region's normal enemies, since Judah's neighbors spoke tongues close enough to follow. They will eat the harvest, the flocks, the vines and the fig trees, and beat down the fortified cities in which you trust. Every item on that list is something Judah counted as security.
And the exile is given its own explanation in advance, in the form of a question the survivors are expected to ask. When they say, why has Yahweh done all these things to us, the answer is a sentence with a hinge in the middle. As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours. The punishment is the choice, enlarged and made permanent. A people that wanted other masters is given them, and the seventy years are the education Jeremiah 25:11.
settled What this mark means