Jeremiah 12
17 verses · 3 passages
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Chapter 12
The Prosperity of the Wicked
Passage 12:1-4
God’s Answer to Jeremiah
Passage 12:5-13
A Message for Israel’s Neighbors
Passage 12:13-17
The Prosperity of the Wicked
1Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
2You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.
3But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.
4How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”
5“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
6Even your brothers— your own father’s household— even they have betrayed you; even they have cried aloud against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
7I have forsaken My house; I have abandoned My inheritance. I have given the beloved of My soul into the hands of her enemies.
8My inheritance has become to Me like a lion in the forest. She has roared against Me; therefore I hate her.
9Is not My inheritance to Me like a speckled bird of prey with other birds of prey circling against her? Go, gather all the beasts of the field; bring them to devour her.
10Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of ground. They have turned My pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
11They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.
12Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the earth to the other. No flesh has peace.
13They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves to no avail. Bear the shame of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”