Jeremiah 5:4
◄  Jeremiah 5:4  ►
New International Version (©2011)
I thought, "These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Then I said, "But what can we expect from the poor? They are ignorant. They don't know the ways of the LORD. They don't understand God's laws.

English Standard Version (©2001)
Then I said, “These are only the poor; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Then I said, "They are only the poor, They are foolish; For they do not know the way of the LORD Or the ordinance of their God.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Then I thought: They are just the poor; they have played the fool. For they don't understand the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Then I said, "These are only the poor, they're foolish, for they don't know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God.

NET Bible (©2006)
I thought, "Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. They act like fools because they do not know what the LORD demands. They do not know what their God requires of them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
I thought, "These are poor, foolish people. They don't know the way of the LORD and the justice that God demands.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.

American King James Version
Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

American Standard Version
Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God:

Douay-Rheims Bible
But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God.

Darby Bible Translation
And I said, Surely these are the wretched ones, they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, the judgment of their God.

English Revised Version
Then I said, Surely these are poor: they are foolish; for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God:

Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

World English Bible
Then I said, "Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God.

Young's Literal Translation
And I -- I said, 'Surely these are poor, They have been foolish, For they have not known the way of Jehovah, The judgment of their God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-9 None could be found who behaved as upright and godly men. But the Lord saw the true character of the people through all their disguises. The poor were ignorant, and therefore they were wicked. What can be expected but works of darkness, from people that know nothing of God and religion? There are God's poor, who, notwithstanding poverty, know the way of the Lord, walk in it, and do their duty; but these were willingly ignorant, and their ignorance would not be their excuse. The rich were insolent and haughty, and the abuse of God's favours made their sin worse.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Therefore I said; rather, and as for me, I said. They are foolish; rather, they act foolishly (as Numbers 12:11). For; rather, because. Their want of religious instruction is the cause of their faulty conduct. In fact, it was only after the return from Babylon that any popular schools were founded in Judaea, and not till shortly before the destruction of the temple that the elementary instruction attained the regularity of a system (Edersheim, 'Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Time of Christ,' pp. 134, 135). The judgment of their God. A similar phrase occurs in Jeremiah 8:7. "Judgment (mishpat) here (as in some other passages) has acquired a technical sense. This may be illustrated by the corresponding word in Arabic (din), which means

(1) obedience,

(2) a religion,

(3) a statute or ordinance,

(4) a system of usages, rites, and ceremonies" (Lane's 'Lexicon,' s.v.). Judgment is, therefore, here equivalent to "religious law," and "law" is a preferable rendering.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish,.... The prophet, observing that reproofs and corrections in providence had no effect upon the people, he thought within himself that surely the reason must be, because these people are poor, and in low circumstances in the world, and are so busy in their worldly employments to get bread for their families, that they were not at leisure to attend unto divine things; nor of capacity to receive instruction and correction by providences; therefore it is they were so foolish, stupid, and infatuated:

for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God; either the way which God takes in the salvation of the sons of men, and in justifying of them, which is revealed in his word; or that which he prescribes them to walk in, in his law, even the way of truth and righteousness, and for failure of which he judges and condemns them; but of these things they were ignorant; see John 7:48, not that this is observed in excuse for them, but in order to introduce what follows; and to show that this depravity, stupidity, and ignorance, obtained among all sort of people, high and low, rich and poor.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. poor—rather, "the poor." He supposes for the moment that this utter depravity is confined to the uninstructed poor, and that he would find a different state of things in the higher ranks: but there he finds unbridled profligacy.

Jeremiah 5:4 Parallel Commentaries

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No One is Just
…3O LORD, are not your eyes on the truth? you have stricken them, but they have 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. 4Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. 5I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. …

Isaiah 27:11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
Jeremiah 4:22 "My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good."
Jeremiah 8:7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:3 "They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me," declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 10:8 They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.