Translation
King James Version
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
KJV (with Strong's)
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say H559, Wherefore H8478 H4100 doeth H6213 the LORD H3068 our God H430 all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer H559 them, Like as ye have forsaken H5800 me, and served H5647 strange H5236 gods H430 in your land H776, so shall ye serve H5647 strangers H2114 in a land H776 that is not yours.
Complete Jewish Bible
And when your people ask, 'Why has ADONAI our God done all these things to us?' you are to give them this answer: 'Just as you abandoned me and served strange gods in your own land, so likewise you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.'
Berean Standard Bible
And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’”
American Standard Version
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah our God done all these things unto us? then shalt thou say unto them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
World English Bible Messianic
It will happen, when you say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
Geneva Bible (1599)
And when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God doe these things vnto vs? then shalt thou answere them, Like as ye haue forsaken me and serued strange gods in your land, so shall ye serue strangers in a land that is not yours.
Young's Literal Translation
And it hath come to pass, when ye say, `For what hath Jehovah our God done to us all these?' That thou hast said unto them, `As ye have forsaken Me, And serve the gods of a foreigner in your land, So do ye serve strangers in a land not yours.
See also
In the KJVVerse 19,078 of 31,102
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Commentary on Jeremiah 5 verses 10–19
10 ¶ Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.
14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
17 And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.
19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
We may observe in these verses, as before,
I. The sin of this people, upon which the commission signed against them is grounded. God disowns them and dooms them to destruction, Jer 5:10. But is there not a cause? Yes; for, 1. They have deserted the law of God (Jer 5:11): The house of Israel and the house of Judah, though at variance with one another, yet both agreed to deal very treacherously against God. They forsook the worship of him, and therein violated their covenants with him; they revolted from him, and played the hypocrite with him. 2. They have defied the judgments of God and given the lie to his threatenings in the mouth of his prophets, Jer 5:12, Jer 5:13. They were often told that evil would certainly come upon them; they must expect some desolating judgment, sword or famine; but they were secure and said, We shall have peace, though we go on. For, (1.) They did not fear what God is. They belied him, and confronted the dictates even of natural light concerning him; for they said, "It is not he, that is, he is not such a one as we have been made to believe he is; he does not see, or not regard, or will not require it; and therefore no evil shall come upon us." Multitudes are ruined by being made to believe that God will not be so strict with them as his word says he will; nay, by this artifice Satan undid us all: You shall not surely die. So here: Neither shall we see sword nor famine. Vain hopes of impunity are the deceitful support of all impiety. (2.) They did not fear what God said. The prophets gave them fair warning, but they turned it off with a jest: "They do but talk so, because it is their trade; they are words of course, and words are but wind. It is not the word of the Lord that is in them; it is only the language of their melancholy fancy or their ill-will to their country, because they are not preferred." Note, Impenitent sinners are not willing to own any thing to be the word of God that makes against them, that tends either to part them from, or disquiet them in, their sins. They threaten the prophets: "They shall become wind, shall pass away unregarded, and thus shall it be done unto them; what they threaten against us we will inflict upon them. Do they frighten us with famine? Let them be fed with the bread of affliction." So Micaiah was, Kg1 22:27. "Do they tell us of the sword? Let them perish by the sword," Jer 2:30. Thus their mocking and misusing God's messengers filled the measure of their iniquity.
II. The punishment of this people for their sin. 1. The threatenings they laughed at shall be executed (Jer 5:14): Because you speak this word of contempt concerning the prophets, and the word in their mouths, therefore God will put honour upon them and their words, for not one iota or tittle of them shall fall to the ground, Sa1 3:19. Here God turns to the prophet Jeremiah, who had been thus bantered, and perhaps had been a little uneasy at it: Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire. God owns them for his words, though men denied them, and will as surely make them to take effect as the fire consumes combustible material that is in its way. The word shall be fire and the people wood. Sinners by sin make themselves fuel to that wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men in the scripture. The word of God will certainly be too hard for those that contend with it. Those shall break who will not bow before it. 2. The enemy they thought themselves in no danger of shall be brought upon them. God gives them their commission (Jer 5:10): "Go you up upon her walls, mount them, trample upon them, tread them down. Walls of stone, before the divine commission, shall be but mud walls. Having made yourselves masters of the walls, you may destroy at pleasure. You may take away her battlements, and leave the fenced fortified cities to lie open; for her battlements are not the Lord's he does not own them and therefore will not protect and fortify them." They were not erected in his fear, nor with a dependence upon him; the people have trusted to them more than to God, and therefore they are not his. When the city is filled with sin God will not patronise the fortifications of it, and then they are paper walls. What can defend us when he who is our defence, and the defender of all our defences, has departed from us? Num 14:9. What is not of God cannot stand, not stand long, nor stand us in any stead. What dreadful work these invaders should make is here described (Jer 5:15): Lo, I will bring a nation upon you, O house of Israel! Note, God has all nations at his command, does what he pleases with them and makes what use he pleases of them. And sometimes he is pleased to make the nations of the earth, the heathen nations, a scourge to the house of Israel, when that has become a hypocritical nation. This nation of the Chaldeans is here said to be a remote nation; it is brought upon them from afar, and therefore will make the greater spoil and the longer stay, that the soldiers may pay themselves well for so long a march. "It is a nation that thou hast had no commerce with, by reason of their distance, and therefore canst not expect to find favour with." God can bring trouble upon us from places and causes very remote. It is a mighty nation, that there is no making head against, an ancient nation, that value themselves upon their antiquity and will therefore be the more haughty and imperious. It is a nation whose language thou knowest not; they spoke the Syriac tongue, which the Jews at that time were not acquainted with, as appears, Kg2 18:26. The difference of language would make it the more difficult to treat with them of peace. Compare this with the threatening, Deu 28:49, which it seems to have a reference to, for the law and the prophets exactly agree. They are well armed: Their quiver is as an open sepulchre; their arrows shall fly so thick, hit so sure, and wound so deep, that they shall be reckoned to breathe nothing but death and slaughter: they are able-bodied, all effective, mighty men, Jer 5:16. And, when they have made themselves masters of the country, they shall devour all before them, and reckon all their own that they can lay their hands on, Jer 5:17. (1.) They shall strip the country, shall not only sustain, but surfeit, their soldiers with the rich products of this fruitful land. "They shall not store up (then it might possibly by retrieved), but eat up thy harvest in the field and thy bread in the house, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat." Note, What we have we have for our families, and it is a comfort to see our sons and daughters eating that which we have taken care and pains for. But it is a grievous vexation to see it devoured by strangers and enemies, to see their camps victualled with our stores, while those that are dear to us are perishing for want of it: this also is according to the curse of the law, Deu 28:33. "They shall eat up thy flocks and herds, out of which thou hast taken sacrifices for thy idols; they shall not leave thee the fruit of thy vines and fig-trees." (2.) They shall starve the towns: "They shall impoverish thy fenced cities" (and what fence is there against poverty, when it comes like an armed man?), "those cities wherein thou trustedst to be a protection to the country." Note, It is just with God to impoverish that which we make our confidence. They shall impoverish them with the sword, cutting off all provisions from coming to them and intercepting trade and commerce, which will impoverish even fenced cities.
III. An intimation of the tender compassion God has yet for them. The enemy is commissioned to destroy and lay waste, but must not make a full end, Jer 5:10. Though they make a great slaughter, yet some must be left to live; though they make a great spoil, yet something must be left to live upon, for God has said it (Jer 5:18) with a non obstante - a nevertheless to the present desolation: "Even in those days, dismal as they are, I will not make a full end with you;" and, if God will not, the enemy shall not. God has mercy in store for his people, and therefore will set bounds to this desolating judgment. Hitherto it shall come, and no further.
IV. The justification of God in these proceedings against them. As he will appear to be gracious in not making a full end with them, so he will appear to be righteous in coming so near it, and will have it acknowledged that he has done them no wrong, Jer 5:19. Observe, 1. A reason demanded, insolently demanded, by the people for these judgments. They will say "Wherefore doth the Lord our God do all this unto us? What provocation have we given him, or what quarrel has he with us?" As if against such a sinful nation there did not appear cause enough of action. Note, Unhumbled hearts are ready to charge God with injustice in their afflictions, and pretend they have to seek for the cause of them when it is written in the forehead of them. But, 2. Here is a reason immediately assigned. The prophet is instructed what answer to give them; for God will be justified when he speaks, though he speaks with ever so much terror. He must tell them that God does this against them for what they have done against him, and that they may, if they please, read their sin in their punishment. Do not they know very well that they have forsaken God, and therefore can they think it strange if he has forsaken them? Have they forgotten how often they served gods in their own land, that good land, in the abundance of the fruits of which they ought to have served God with gladness of heart? and therefore is it not just with God to make them serve strangers in a strange land, where they can call nothing their own, as he has threatened to do? Deu 28:47, Deu 28:48. Those that are fond of strangers, to strangers let them go.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 10–19. Public domain.
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Origen of AlexandriaAD 253
HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 7:3.2
The Word literally said to them, “As you have forsaken me and served other gods in your land, you shall serve in a land not your own.” But every person who makes something a god serves alien gods. Do you deify food and drink? “Your god is the belly.” Do you honor silver and the wealth here below as a great good? Your god and lord is Mammon. For Jesus spoke of the love of money when he said, “You cannot serve God and Mammon. No one can serve two masters.” Thus one who honors money and esteems wealth and supposes that it is good and accepts the rich as gods and despises the poor as not possessing god in their character, deifies silver. If anyone in the land of God, in the church, should worship alien gods by making things worthy to be god that are not to be made god, he will be rejected to an alien land and worship gods that he worshiped when he was inside. Outside let him be rejected by the church as a lover of money; let the one who is a glutton be outside the church.
JeromeAD 420
Commentary on Jeremiah
(Verse 19) But if you shall say: why has the Lord our God done all these things to us? You shall say to them: Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods (or foreign deities) in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours. It is a great folly not to know why they have suffered, since they have sinned so greatly. And a brief response to those who are doubting: just as you have served foreign gods, that is, Baal, or the foreign gods of all the nations in the land of Judah, so you shall serve foreign gods in a land that is not yours, undoubtedly Babylon and Chaldea. For if a foreign religion delights you, why is it necessary to embrace distant error? Dwell with such people, indeed serve those whose gods you worship. This can also be understood about heretics, of whom it is written: They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us (1 John 2:19), that the Lord may cast out heretics from the Church, who for a long time under the name of it have worshiped the idols of their lies, so that they may worship outside what they formerly worshiped within, so that the chaff may be separated from the wheat.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 5:19 stands as a profound prophetic declaration from the Lord, delivered through the prophet Jeremiah, anticipating Judah's future lament during their impending exile. This verse unveils God's righteous justification for the severe judgment, directly linking the nation's suffering to their profound spiritual unfaithfulness. It articulates a principle of divine reciprocity: because Judah deliberately abandoned the Lord and served foreign deities within their own land, they would be compelled to serve foreign oppressors in a land not their own. This serves as a powerful and stark testament to the inevitable consequences of covenant infidelity and widespread idolatry.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jeremiah 5:19 masterfully employs several potent literary devices to convey its message with striking impact. Anticipation is clearly evident as the Lord foretells Judah's future question, demonstrating divine foreknowledge and His ultimate sovereignty over historical events. The verse's core structure is built upon a powerful Parallelism and a precise Chiasm (ABBA structure), which creates a profound sense of Poetic Justice. The structure can be discerned as: "forsaken me (A) / served strange gods (B) in your land (C)" followed by "serve strangers (B') in a land not yours (C')". Here, the "strange gods" (B) are directly mirrored by "strangers" (B'), and "your land" (C) by "a land not yours" (C')'. This chiastic arrangement underscores the direct, reciprocal nature of the judgment. The use of the same root concept for "strange" (H5236, nêkâr) in "strange gods" and "strangers" (H2114, zûwr, a concept of foreignness) further emphasizes this direct, reciprocal consequence. The entire verse functions as a divine Rhetorical Question posed by Judah, followed by God's unequivocal Answer, designed to leave no doubt about the justice and righteousness of His actions.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
This verse profoundly articulates the theological principle of divine justice and the inevitable consequences of covenant infidelity. It underscores that God's judgments are never arbitrary acts of vengeance but rather righteous and measured responses to human sin, particularly the sin of idolatry, which constitutes a direct affront to His exclusive sovereignty and a betrayal of the sacred covenant relationship. The stark contrast between "strange gods" and "strangers" highlights the reciprocal nature of divine justice: what Judah sowed in spiritual disloyalty, they would precisely reap in physical subjugation and displacement. This serves as a timeless and sobering warning that turning away from the one true God for anything else—whether literal idols or modern-day substitutes like wealth, power, comfort, or self-worship—inevitably leads to spiritual and often tangible forms of bondage and loss. God's faithfulness to His covenant encompasses both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, ensuring that His holiness, righteousness, and justice are always upheld.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 5:19 calls us to a profound and honest introspection regarding our own loyalties, affections, and ultimate allegiances. While we may not bow to physical idols made of wood or stone, the principle of "strange gods" remains acutely relevant in contemporary life. Anything that subtly or overtly displaces God from the supreme position in our hearts—be it career success, personal comfort, relationships, social status, material possessions, or even deeply held personal desires—becomes an idol that demands our service and ultimately leads to a form of spiritual bondage. This verse serves as a sober reminder that God is perfectly just, and while His grace abounds for repentance, His covenant with His people requires exclusive and undivided devotion. Our choices have profound consequences, and genuine freedom, flourishing, and true peace are found only in wholehearted, undivided allegiance to the Lord. We are challenged to honestly examine what we truly serve and to repent of any "strange gods" that have usurped God's rightful place, lest we find ourselves metaphorically "serving strangers in a land not yours"—a spiritual state of alienation, unfreedom, and profound dissatisfaction.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "strange gods" refer to in this context?
Answer: In Jeremiah's time, "strange gods" (Hebrew: ʼĕlôhîym nêkâr) primarily referred to the pagan deities worshipped by the surrounding nations, such as Baal, Asherah, Molech, and the host of gods associated with fertility cults and astral worship. These were considered "strange" because they were foreign to the covenant God of Israel, Yahweh, who had revealed Himself as the one true and living God. Judah's adoption and worship of these foreign deities constituted a grave act of spiritual adultery and a direct violation of the First Commandment, which strictly prohibited worshipping any other gods besides the Lord. This idolatry was a direct affront to God's unique sovereignty and His covenantal claim on Israel.
How does Judah's "forsaking" God relate to their "serving strange gods"?
Answer: The "forsaking" (Hebrew: ʻâzab) of God is the foundational act of disloyalty that logically precedes and enables the "serving strange gods." To "forsake" God implies a deliberate abandonment of the covenant relationship and the exclusive devotion owed to Him. It is not merely a passive drifting away, but an active and intentional turning from the one true source of life, blessing, and security. Once God is forsaken, a spiritual vacuum is created, which is then readily filled by the worship and service of "strange gods." This indicates a fundamental and catastrophic shift in allegiance, where the people's trust, worship, and obedience are transferred from Yahweh to impotent idols, leading to widespread spiritual and moral corruption throughout the land, as vividly described in Jeremiah's prophecies (e.g., Jeremiah 2:13).
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jeremiah 5:19, with its stark portrayal of Judah's covenant breaking and the ensuing judgment of exile and subjugation, finds its ultimate fulfillment and profound resolution in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The people of God "forsaking" the Lord and "serving strange gods" highlights humanity's pervasive sin problem—our innate tendency to turn from the Creator to worship the created, leading inevitably to spiritual exile and profound bondage. Christ, however, perfectly embodies the obedient Israelite, never "forsaking" the Father but always doing His will and seeking His glory (e.g., John 8:29). He is the true Israel, perfectly fulfilling the covenant where Judah and all humanity failed. The "strangers" Judah was forced to serve due to their sin foreshadow the spiritual bondage to sin, death, and the law from which humanity desperately needed deliverance. Jesus came precisely to set us free from serving these spiritual "strangers"—the dominion of sin, the power of death, and the condemnation of the law (e.g., Romans 6:16-18 and Galatians 5:1). Through His atoning sacrifice on the cross, Christ bore the full curse of the covenant that Judah and all sinners incurred (e.g., Galatians 3:13), allowing those who believe in Him to be reconciled to God and brought into a new covenant. In this new covenant, God's law is written on their hearts by the Spirit, enabling them to truly know God and preventing them from "forsaking" Him (e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 8:8-12). Thus, the judgment on Judah for their idolatry points to the profound need for a Savior who would perfectly obey God and liberate His people from the spiritual "strangers" of sin, ushering them into the true promised "land" of eternal life and unbroken fellowship with God (e.g., Revelation 21:1-4).