"Go to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, / And look now and know, / And seek in her open squares / If you can find a man, / If there is anyone who executes justice, / Who seeks faithfulness; / And I will pardon her" (Jer. 5:1). Here we have a summary of Jehovah's complaint: no one was executing justice or seeking faithfulness. There was no faithfulness among them.
Verse 3 exposes Israel's attitude toward God's correction. "You have stricken them,/But they did not writhe;/You have consumed them,/But they refused to take correction./They have made their faces harder than rock;/They have refused to turn." Even though they were sinful, they would not receive God's correction.
"Surely these know the way of Jehovah, / The ordinance of their God. / But together they both have broken the yoke; / They have torn off the bonds" (v. 5). In the law there are not only the Ten Commandments but also many ordinances, regulations of God's just and righteous law. Israel knew these ordinances but would not follow them.
"When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery / And trooped to the house of harlots. / Like well-fed horses they roam about, / Each one neighing after his neighbor's wife" (vv. 7-8). This indicates that the people were adulterous, utterly sinful. The visitors to the house of harlots were like a troop, like an army.
Israel did not tremble before Jehovah, who has set the sand as a boundary for the sea (v. 22). Rather, they had a stubborn and rebellious heart, and they turned aside and went away (v. 23).