Jeremiah 12–13

JEREMIAH’S COMPLAINT

12You will be righteous, Lord,ⁱ

even if I bring a case against you.

Yet, I wish to contend with you:^j

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?^k

Why do all the treacherous live at ease?

²You planted them,^l and they have taken root.

They have grown and produced fruit.

You are ever on their lips,^E

but far from their conscience.^Dm

³As for you, Lord, you know me; you see me.ⁿ

You test whether my heart is with you.^o

Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughter^p

and set them apart for the day of killing.

⁴How long will the land mourn^q

and the grass of every field wither?

Because of the evil of its residents,

animals and birds have been swept away,^r

for the people have said,

“He cannot see what our end will be.”^Fs

THE LORD’S RESPONSE

⁵If you have raced with runners

and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble^G in a peaceful land,

what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?^t

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

even they were treacherous to you;^u

even they have cried out loudly after you.^v

Do not have confidence in them,

though they speak well of you.

⁷I have abandoned my house;^w

I have deserted my inheritance.

I have handed the love of my life

over to her enemies.

⁸My inheritance has behaved toward me

like a lion in the forest.

She has roared against me.

Therefore, I hate her.^x

⁹Is my inheritance like a hyena^A to me?

Are birds of prey circling her?

Go, gather all the wild animals;^y

bring them to devour her.

¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;

they have trampled my plot of land.^z

They have turned my desirable plot

into a desolate wasteland.

¹¹They have made it a desolation.

It mourns, desolate, before me.

All the land is desolate,

but no one takes it to heart.^aa

¹²Over 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.^ab

¹³They have sown wheat but harvested thorns.^ac

They have exhausted themselves but have no profit.^ad

Be put to shame by your harvests

because of the Lord’s burning anger.^ae

¹⁴This 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^af from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them. ¹⁵After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion^a on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land. ¹⁶If they will diligently learn the ways of my people^b—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. ¹⁷However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation.”^c

This is the Lord’s declaration.

LINEN UNDERWEAR

13This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment^d and put it on.^B But do not put it in water.” ²So I bought underwear as the Lord instructed me and put it on.

³Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: ⁴“Take the underwear that you bought and are wearing,^A and go at once to the Euphrates^B and hide it in a rocky crevice.”^{e 5}So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.

⁶A long time later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to the Euphrates and get the underwear that I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined—of no use at all.

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁹“This is what the Lord says: Just like this I will ruin the great pride of both Judah and Jerusalem.^{f 10}These evil people, who refuse to listen to me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts,^g and who have followed other gods to serve and bow in worship—they will be like this underwear, of no use at all. ¹¹Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to me”^h—this is the Lord’s declaration—“so that they might be my people for my fame, praise, and glory,ⁱ but they would not obey.

THE WINE JARS

¹²“Say this to them: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Every jar should be filled with wine.’ Then they will respond to you, ‘Don’t we know that every jar should be filled with wine?’ ¹³And you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to fill all who live in this land—the kings who reign for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the residents of Jerusalem—with drunkenness. ¹⁴I will smash them against each other, fathers and sons alike—this is the Lord’s declaration. I will allow no mercy, pity, or compassion to keep me from destroying them.’ ”^j

THE LORD’S WARNING

¹⁵Listen and pay attention. Do not be proud,

for the Lord has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God^k

before he brings darkness,

before your feet stumble

on the mountains at dusk.

You wait for light,

but he brings darkest gloom^C

and makes total darkness.

¹⁷But if you will not listen,

my innermost being will weep in secret

because of your pride.

My eyes will overflow with tears,

for the Lord’s flock^l has been taken captive.

¹⁸Say to the king and the queen mother:^m

Take a humble seat,

for your glorious crowns

have fallen from your heads.

¹⁹The cities of the Negev are under siege;

no one can help them.

All of Judah has been taken into exile,

taken completely into exile.

²⁰Look up and see

those coming from the north.ⁿ

Where is the flock entrusted to you,

the sheep that were your pride?

THE DESTINY OF JERUSALEM

²¹What will you say when he appoints

close friends as leaders over you,

ones you yourself trained?

Won’t labor pains seize you,^o

as they do a woman in labor?

²²And when you ask yourself,

“Why have these things happened to me?”

it is because of your great guilt^p

that your skirts have been stripped off,^q

your body exposed.^A

²³Can the Cushite change his skin,

or a leopard his spots?

If so, you might be able to do what is good,^a

you who are instructed in evil.

²⁴I will scatter you^B like drifting chaff^b

before the desert wind.

²⁵This is your lot,

what I have decreed for you—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

because you have forgotten me^c

and trusted in lies.^d

²⁶I will pull your skirts up over your face

so that your shame might be seen.^e

²⁷Your adulteries and your lustful neighing,^f

your depraved prostitution

on the hills, in the fields—

I have seen your abhorrent acts.

Woe to you, Jerusalem!

You are unclean—

for how long yet?^g