Jeremiah 5:4 is the prophet’s first, hopeful guess about why Jerusalem keeps turning away from God: he assumes the people are simply poor and uninformed, people who have never been taught how the LORD wants them to live. The verse records Jeremiah’s own thinking as he walks the city looking for someone who is honest and righteous. Jeremiah speaks here as the prophet of God, and the words describe the common people of Jerusalem, the ones he has been trying to reach.
Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.
Jeremiah 5:4 (WEB)
What Jeremiah 5:4 Means
Jeremiah begins with “Surely these are poor.” He is not only describing their wealth or lack of it. In the Hebrew sense, the word points to people who are low, weak, or without understanding. He concludes that their trouble is a matter of ignorance rather than defiance, and he wants to believe that a poor, untaught people might simply not have been given the truth.
Then comes “They are foolish; for they don’t know the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.” Here “foolish” does not mean they lack intelligence. In the wisdom and prophetic books, a fool is someone who has refused to live by God’s order. Jeremiah is saying their folly comes from not knowing how God expects them to walk and what His teaching requires.
The verse does not promise that ignorance excuses everything, and it does not say the people are innocent. Jeremiah is only at the start of his assessment. In the verses that follow, he will discover that the problem goes deeper than a lack of teaching, which is why the verse reads as a hopeful misjudgment rather than a final verdict.
The Context of Jeremiah 5:4
The book of Jeremiah was written by the prophet himself, with his scribe Baruch involved in recording and preserving his words, and it addresses the people of Judah and Jerusalem in the years before the Babylonian exile in the early sixth century BC. The audience is the city’s ordinary population, the streets and markets that Jeremiah is told to search. In chapter 5, God challenges him to find even one person who acts justly and seeks truth, a sign that the moral collapse is widespread.
Verses 1 through 3 set up the search, and verses 4 through 5 describe Jeremiah’s first conclusion and his plan to go to the great men instead. That plan collapses when he finds they are no better, and the chapter ends with the people breaking the yoke and bonds of God. Because verse 4 is only the first step of the search, it reads best as a prophet’s initial, charitable hope that is soon tested by what he actually finds.
Key Phrases in Jeremiah 5:4
Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
(WEB)
This verse teaches that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, and that fools despise wisdom and instruction. It helps explain why Jeremiah links folly with not knowing God’s way. Knowledge of God is where wisdom begins.
Jeremiah 5:5
I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of the LORD, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
(WEB)
In the very next verse, Jeremiah turns to the great men, expecting them to know God’s way and His law. Reading it alongside verse 4 shows how his hope for the common people becomes a search for leaders who should have known better.
A Short Prayer From Jeremiah 5:4
Lord, I confess that I have sometimes judged people quickly, assuming they know nothing of Your ways when I have not taken time to listen. Give me Your patience and a generous heart toward those who are still learning. Show me where I can teach what I know with gentleness, and help me see clearly when someone has heard Your truth and turned away. Keep me faithful to walk in Your way myself, so that my life can point others toward You. Amen.
