Jeremiah 12–13

Jeremiah Questions the

12“Lord, if I argued my case with you,

you would prove to be right.

Yet I must question you about matters of justice.

Why are the wicked so prosperous?

Why do dishonest people succeed?

²You plant them, and they take root;

they grow and bear fruit.

They always speak well of you,

yet they do not really care about you.

³But, Lord, you know me;

you see what I do,

and how I love you.

Drag these evil people away like sheep to be butchered;

guard them until it is time for them to be slaughtered.

⁴How long will our land be dry,

and the grass in every field be withered?

Animals and birds are dying

because of the wickedness of our

people, people who say, ‘God doesn’t see what we are doing.’ ”^o

⁵The Lord said,

“Jeremiah, if you get tired racing against people,

how can you race against horses?

If you can’t even stand up in open country,

how will you manage in the jungle by the Jordan?

⁶Even your relatives, members of your own family, have betrayed you;

they join in the attacks against you.

Do not trust them, even though they speak friendly words.”

The ’s Sorrow because of His People

⁷The Lord says,

“I have abandoned Israel;

I have rejected my chosen nation.

I have given the people I love

into the power of their enemies.

⁸My chosen people have turned against me;

like a lion in the forest

they have roared at me,

and so I hate them.

⁹My chosen people are like a bird

attacked from all sides by hawks.

Call the wild animals

to come and join in the feast!

¹⁰Many foreign rulers have destroyed my vineyard;

they have trampled down my fields;

they have turned my lovely land into a desert.

¹¹They have made it a wilderness;

it lies desolate before me.

The whole land has become a desert,

and no one cares.

¹²Across all the desert highlands

people have come to plunder.

I have sent war to destroy the entire land;

no one can live in peace.

¹³My people sowed wheat, but gathered weeds;

they have worked hard, but got nothing for it.

Because of my fierce anger

their crops have failed.”

The ’s Promise to Israel’s Neighbours

¹⁴The Lord says, “I have something to say about Israel’s neighbours who have ruined the land I gave to my people Israel. I will take those wicked people away from their countries like an uprooted plant, and I will rescue Judah from them. ¹⁵But after I have taken them away, I will have mercy on them; I will bring each nation back to its own land and to its own country. ¹⁶If with all their hearts they will accept the religion of my people and will swear, ‘As the Lord lives’ —as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will also be a part of my people and will prosper. ¹⁷But if any nation will not obey, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The Linen Shorts

13The Lord told me to go and buy myself some linen shorts and to put them on; but he told me not to put them in water. ²So I bought them and put them on. ³Then the Lord spoke to me again, and said, ⁴“Go to the River Euphrates and hide the shorts in a hole in the rocks.” ⁵So I went and hid them near the Euphrates.

⁶Some time later the Lord told me to go back to the Euphrates and get the shorts. ⁷So I went back, and when I found the place where I had hidden them, I saw that they were ruined and were no longer any good.

⁸Then the Lord spoke to me again. He said, ⁹“This is how I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰These evil people have refused to obey me. They have been as stubborn and wicked as ever, and have worshipped and served other gods. So then, they will become like these shorts that are no longer any good. ¹¹Just as shorts fit tightly round the waist, so I intended all the people of Israel and Judah to hold tightly to me. I did this so that they would be my people and would bring praise and honour to my name; but they would not obey me.”

The Wine-Jar

¹²The Lord God said to me, “Jeremiah, tell the people of Israel that every wine jar should be filled with wine. They will answer that they know every wine jar should be filled with wine. ¹³Then tell them that I, the Lord, am going to fill the people in this land with wine until they are drunk: the kings, who are David’s descendants, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁴Then I will smash them like jars against one another, old and young alike. No pity, compassion, or mercy will stop me from killing them.”

Jeremiah Warns against Pride

¹⁵People of Israel, the Lord has spoken!

Be humble and listen to him.

¹⁶Honour the Lord, your God,

before he brings darkness,

and you stumble on the mountains;

before he turns into deep darkness

the light you hoped for.

¹⁷If you will not listen,

I will cry in secret because of your pride;

I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow

because the Lord’s people have been taken away as captives.

¹⁸The Lord said to me, “Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads.^{p 19}The towns of southern Judah are under siege; no one can get through to them. All the people of Judah have been taken away into exile.”

²⁰Jerusalem, look! Your enemies are coming down from the north! Where are the people entrusted to your care, your people you were so proud of? ²¹What will you say when people you thought were your friends conquer you and rule over you?^q You will be in pain like a woman giving birth. ²²If you ask why all this has happened to you—why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped—it is because your sin is so terrible. ²³Can a Nubian change the colour of his skin, or a leopard remove its spots? If they could, then you that do nothing but evil could learn to do what is right. ²⁴The Lord will scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind. ²⁵He has said that this will be your fate. This is what he has decided to do with you, because you have forgotten him and have trusted in false gods. ²⁶The Lord himself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame. ²⁷He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbour’s wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure?