Who must “run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem” to see if they can find a man who does justice and seeks truth?
Both Jeremiah 4:1–31 and Jeremiah 6:1–30 focus on the Lord’s judgment that is coming to Judah in the form of an enemy who will come from the north. This enemy is mentioned again in Jeremiah 5:15–19, but the main focus of Jeremiah 5:1–31 is the reasons why the Lord’s judgment is coming. In Jeremiah 2:1–37 the reasons given for the Lord’s judgment were mainly idolatry and false religion. In Jeremiah 5:1–31 the reasons are moral. The Lord’s judgment is coming because of Judah’s moral failure.
The focus on moral failure in this chapter suggests that it contains material that comes from the end of Josiah’s reign, or even early in Jehoiakim’s reign. It suggests a time when the religious reforms that Josiah instituted have started to take hold. Temple worship has been restored and pagan worship sights have been removed. However, despite all the outward religious reform, it has had no impact on moral behaviour in Judah. The people are still not living out the terms of the covenant in their public and private daily lives.1
It is helpful to recognize the voices in this section2 :
Jeremiah 5:1–2 – The Lord speaks
Jeremiah 5:3–6 – Jeremiah responds
Jeremiah 5:7–9 – The Lord speaks again
The section begins with the Lord inviting Jeremiah to run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem.
The purpose is to search her squares to see if you can find a man who does justice and seeks truth.
The word justice
speaks of acting rightly towards other people. The Hebrew word muna, translated as seeks truth,
literally means, who seeks faithfulness
and probably refers to faithfulness to the Lord. Jeremiah is to look for just one man who shows covenant faithfulness in the way he deals with others and relates to the Lord.3 If just one such man can be found, then the Lord will pardon Judah. This interaction between the Lord and Jeremiah reminds the reader of the conversation between Abraham and the Lord in Genesis 18:32 regarding Sodom. If Abraham was able to find just one righteous person in Sodom, then the Lord would not have poured out his judgment onto the city. The conclusion of that story is that there was no righteous person in Sodom and the Lord did pour out his judgment. The implication in Jeremiah 5:1 is that something similar is about to happen in Jerusalem.
1 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her.