Jeremiah 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Late seventh century BC, close in time to the plot at Anathoth, probably under Jehoiakim
Location
Jerusalem and the Judean countryside, with a glance at the dense thickets along the Jordan river
Audience
The people of Judah, and later readers wrestling with why wrongdoing goes unpunished
Situation
Jeremiah puts God on trial with a direct question about why treacherous people prosper, and receives an answer that promises harder trials ahead rather than relief. God then speaks of abandoning his own household and of what will happen to the neighbouring nations that plundered it.
Key Background
The prophet frames his complaint in courtroom language, laying out a case the way a plaintiff would before a village elder, a form found across the Hebrew scriptures for pressing a grievance with God. The reply about racing horses and the thickets of the Jordan draws on two known dangers: mounted couriers who covered ground far faster than a runner, and the tangled riverside scrub that sheltered lions, meaning the difficulty so far has been the easy stretch. The chapter's closing offer to replant uprooted neighbours reflects imperial practice, where whole populations were deported and later, if a new ruler chose, allowed to return to their land.
You are always in the Yahweh, whenever I my to you. But let me put one thing on the table: Why does the way of the corrupt succeed? Why do the live at ease?
You planted them, and they took root. They grow tall, they even bear fruit. You're always on their lips but in their
But you know me, Yahweh, you see me, you've what my toward you. Drag them off like sheep to the slaughter, mark them out for the of
How long will the mourn and the grass of every field wither? The animals and birds are swept away because the people who live there are corrupt. They keep saying, "He can't see what we'll end up doing."
"If you've been running with people on foot and they've already worn you out, how will you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe, open country, what will you do in the the
"Even your own brothers — your own father's family — even they have betrayed you. Even they are for a against you. Don't trust them, no matter how nicely they talk to you."
"I have abandoned my house. I have deserted my inheritance. I have handed the I love over to her enemies."
"My has turned on me like a lion in the forest. She has roared against me — that is why I have to her."
"Is my inheritance a of prey with other birds of circling against her? Go — gather all the wild animals. Bring them to feed on her."
"Many have destroyed my vineyard. They have trampled my field. They have turned my beautiful plot of land into a desolate wasteland."
"They have made her a wasteland. Desolate, she mourns before me. The whole land is laid waste, and no
"Destroyers have come across every barren hilltop in the wilderness, because devours from one end of the land to the other. No one — no living thing — has
"They but thorns. They exhausted themselves for nothing. Be ashamed of your harvests — they come from the burning anger of Yahweh."
This is what Yahweh says about all my corrupt neighbors who have seized the inheritance I gave to my people Israel: "Watch — I am about to them from their land. And I will the house of Judah from among them."
"But after I have uprooted them, I will turn back and have on them. I will bring each one back to their own inheritance, each one back to their own land."
"And if they truly learn the ways of my people — swearing by my name, 'As just as they once taught my people to swear by — then they will be up right among my people."
"But if any nation will not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it." This is