The Lord now speaks again in Jeremiah 5:7–9 in response to Jeremiah’s assessment of Jerusalem in Jeremiah 5:3–6. The question, How can I pardon you?
takes us back to Jeremiah 5:1 where the Lord charges Jeremiah to find just one person who does justice and seeks truth, that he may pardon her (Jerusalem).
That search was fruitless and so the question in Jeremiah 5:7 is not holding out the hope of possible pardon, but rather closing it decisively. The Lord is challenging Jerusalem to provide any reasons why the Lord should pardon her, but the evidence is damning, as the rest of the verse makes plain.1
7 “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me and have sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery and trooped to the houses of whores.