10 "Go down the rows of vineyards and rip out the vines, but not all of them. Leave a few. Prune back those vines! That growth didn't come from God! 11 They've betrayed me over and over again, Judah and Israel both." God's Decree. 12 "They've spread lies about God. They've said, 'There's nothing to him. Nothing bad will happen to us, neither famine nor war will come our way. 13 The prophets are all windbags. They speak nothing but nonsense.'" 14 Therefore, this is what God said to me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies: "Because they have talked this way, they are going to eat those words. Watch now! I'm putting my words as fire in your mouth. And the people are a pile of kindling ready to go up in flames. 15 "Attention! I'm bringing a far-off nation against you, O house of Israel." God's Decree. "A solid nation, an ancient nation, A nation that speaks another language. You won't understand a word they say. 16 When they aim their arrows, you're as good as dead. They're a nation of real fighters! 17 They'll clean you out of house and home, rob you of crops and children alike. They'll feast on your sheep and cattle, strip your vines and fig trees. And the fortresses that made you feel so safe - leveled with a stroke of the sword! 18 "Even then, as bad as it will be" - God's Decree! - "it will not be the end of the world for you.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 5:10-18
Commentary on Jeremiah 5:10-18
(Read Jeremiah 5:10-18)
Multitudes are ruined by believing that God will not be so strict as his word says he will; by this artifice Satan undid mankind. Sinners are not willing to own any thing to be God's word, that tends to part them from, or to disquiet them in, their sins. Mocking and misusing the Lord's messengers, filled the measure of their iniquity. God can bring trouble upon us from places and causes very remote. He has mercy in store for his people, therefore will set bounds to this desolating judgment. Let us not overlook the "nevertheless," Psalm 89:30-35.