Jeremiah 12:1-13

New Living Translation

Jeremiah Questions the Lord’s Justice

12 Lord, you always give me justice
    when I bring a case before you.
So let me bring you this complaint:
Why are the wicked so prosperous?
    Why are evil people so happy?
²You have planted them,
    and they have taken root and prospered.
Your name is on their lips,
    but you are far from their hearts.
³But as for me, Lord, you know my heart.
    You see me and test my thoughts.
Drag these people away like sheep to be butchered!
    Set them aside to be slaughtered!

⁴How long must this land mourn?
    Even the grass in the fields has withered.
The wild animals and birds have disappeared
    because of the evil in the land.
For the people have said,
    “The Lord doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!”

The Lord’s Reply to Jeremiah

⁵“If racing against mere men makes you tired,
    how will you race against horses?
If you stumble and fall on open ground,
    what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?
⁶Even your brothers, members of your own family,
    have turned against you.
    They plot and raise complaints against you.
Do not trust them,
    no matter how pleasantly they speak.

⁷“I have abandoned my people, my special possession.
    I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.
⁸My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest,
    so I have treated them with contempt.
⁹My chosen people act like speckled vultures,^[a]
    but they themselves are surrounded by vultures.
    Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean!

¹⁰“Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard,
    trampling down the vines
    and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness.
¹¹They have made it an empty wasteland;
    I hear its mournful cry.
The whole land is desolate,
    and no one even cares.
¹²On all the bare hilltops,
    destroying armies can be seen.
The sword of the Lord devours people
    from one end of the nation to the other.
    No one will escape!
¹³My people have planted wheat
    but are harvesting thorns.
They have worn themselves out,
    but it has done them no good.
They will harvest a crop of shame
    because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”