Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 5:4

"Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God:" — Jeremiah 5:4 (ASV)

Therefore. —Literally, And. The prophet makes for the poor the half-pitying plea of ignorance. Looking upon the masses that toil for bread, those whom the Scribes afterwards called the “people of earth,” it was not strange that they who had been left untaught should have learned so little. The thought finds a parallel in our Lord’s compassion for the multitude who were as sheep having no shepherd (Matthew 9:36), for the servant who knew not his Lord’s will (Luke 12:48).

The way of the Lord. —That which He approves, that which leads to Him, as in Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 31:29.