Jeremiah 12

Jeremiah’s Complaint

1 You will be righteous, Lord,  * 12:1 Ezr 9:15; Neh 9:8,33; Ps 119:137

even if I bring a case against you.

Yet, I wish to contend with you:  * 12:1 Jb 9:14–15; 13:13–28; 23:2–17

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  * 12:1 Ps 73

Why do all the treacherous live at ease?

2 You planted them,  * 12:2 Ps 1:3; Jr 17:7–8 and they have taken root.

They have grown and produced fruit.

You are ever on their lips,  * 12:2 Lit are near in their mouth

but far from their conscience.  * 12:2 Lit kidneys,* 12:2 Ps 28:3; Is 29:13

3 As for you, Lord, you know me; you see me.  * 12:3 Ps 139; Jr 1:5

You test whether my heart is with you.  * 12:3 Ps 7:9; Jr 11:20

Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughter  * 12:3 Jr 11:19

and set them apart for the day of killing.

4 How long will the land mourn  * 12:4 Is 24:4–7; Jr 4:28; 23:10

and the grass of every field wither?

Because of the evil of its residents,

animals and birds have been swept away,  * 12:4 Zph 1:3

for the people have said,

"He cannot see what our end will be."  * 12:4 LXX reads see our ways,* 12:4 Dt 32:20; Jb 22:13; Jr 29:11

The Lord’s Response

5 If you have raced with runners

and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble  * 12:5 Or you are secure in a peaceful land,

what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?  * 12:5 Jr 50:44

6 Even your brothers — your own father’s family —

even they were treacherous to you;  * 12:6 Jn 1:11

even they have cried out loudly after you.  * 12:6 Jr 11:19

Do not have confidence in them,

though they speak well of you.

7 I have abandoned my house;  * 12:7 Ezk 8:1–11:25

I have deserted my inheritance.

I have handed the love of my life

over to her enemies.

8 My inheritance has behaved toward me

like a lion in the forest.

She has roared against me.

Therefore, I hate her.  * 12:8 Hs 9:15; Am 6:8

9 Is my inheritance like a hyena  * 12:9 Hb obscure to me?

Are birds of prey circling her?

Go, gather all the wild animals;  * 12:9 Is 56:9; Jr 7:33

bring them to devour her.

10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;

they have trampled my plot of land.  * 12:10 Is 63:18

They have turned my desirable plot

into a desolate wasteland.

11 They have made it a desolation.

It mourns, desolate, before me.

All the land is desolate,

but no one takes it to heart.  * 12:11 Is 42:25

12 Over all the barren heights in the wilderness

the destroyers have come,

for the Lord has a sword that devours

from one end of the earth to the other.

No one has peace.  * 12:12 2Ch 15:5; Is 48:22; Ezk 13:16

13 They have sown wheat but harvested thorns.  * 12:13 Lv 26:16; Dt 28:38; Hs 8:7; Mc 6:15; Hg 1:6

They have exhausted themselves but have no profit.  * 12:13 Is 55:2

Be put to shame by your harvests

because of the  Lord’s burning anger.  * 12:13 Jr 4:26; 25:37–38

14 This is what the Lord says: "Concerning all my evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to my people, Israel, I am about to uproot them  * 12:14 Jr 1:10; 18:7–8 from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them. 15 After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion  * 12:15 Jr 30:18; 31:20; 33:26; 42:12 on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land. 16 If they will diligently learn the ways of my people  * 12:16 Is 2:2–4; Mc 4:1–5  — to swear by my name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Baal — they will be built up among my people. 17 However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation."  * 12:17 Is 60:12

This is the Lord’s declaration.