Jeremiah 12

You are in the right, LORD, whenever I bring a case before you. Still, I want to argue with you about the way you judge things. Why does life go well for wicked people? Why are all the people who betray others living at ease?

1Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

NoteJeremiah is using courtroom language. "Plead with thee" does not mean beg; it means to bring a lawsuit. "Righteous art thou" is the verdict a judge hands to the side that wins a case, Jeremiah concedes the verdict to God before he even states his complaint. "The way of the wicked" means the whole course of their lives, not a single act.

2You planted them, and they have taken root. They grow, and they produce fruit. They talk about you all the time, but you are far from their inner thoughts.

2Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

NoteThe King James "reins" means the kidneys. Hebrew located a person's deepest feelings and motives in the internal organs, much as modern English locates them in the heart. "Near in their mouth, far from their reins" is the contrast between what they say and what they actually are.

3But you know me, LORD. You see me, and you have tested how my heart is toward you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered. Set them apart for the day of killing.

3But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

Note"Tried" in older English means tested or assayed, the way metal is heated to find out what it really is, not "attempted."

4How long will the land be in mourning, and the plants in every field dry up? Because of the evil of the people who live there, the animals and the birds have been swept away. For the people said, "He will not see how things end for us."

4How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.

Note"He shall not see our last end" is deliberately unclear about who "he" is. It may be a taunt against God (he will not see how we finish) or against Jeremiah, who kept predicting disaster. Some ancient copies read "our ways" rather than "our end." The rendering keeps the ambiguity.

5"If you have run a race against men on foot and they wore you out, how can you compete against horses? And if you fall down in a peaceful land where you felt safe, what will you do in the thick brush along the Jordan River?

5If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?

NoteTwo proverbs about escalating difficulty. "Footmen" are men running on foot; if ordinary runners beat you, cavalry horses will destroy you. "The swelling of Jordan" translates a Hebrew phrase literally meaning "the pride of the Jordan": the dense tangle of scrub and trees on the river's flood plain, notoriously hard to cross and known as lion country. The King James takes it as the river in spring flood; either way it names a place of real danger, set against the "land of peace" that already exhausted him.

6Even your brothers, even your own father's family, have betrayed you. They too have shouted against you in a crowd. Do not trust them, even when they say kind things to you.

6For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; yea, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee.

NoteJeremiah came from Anathoth, a priests' village near Jerusalem; the previous chapter reports men of that town plotting to kill him. "They have called a multitude after thee" renders a Hebrew phrase whose sense is disputed: either they shouted at full volume against you, or they gathered a crowd to come after you. "Speak fair words" means speaking pleasantly to your face.

7I have walked away from my house. I have abandoned the people who belong to me. I have handed the one I love most over to her enemies.

7I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

Note"Mine house" may mean the temple in Jerusalem or God's household, that is, the nation itself. "Heritage" and "inheritance" translate a Hebrew word for land handed down within a family as its permanent share, the word runs through the rest of this chapter and always carries that sense of allotted property, not of money left in a will. "The dearly beloved of my soul" is a term of endearment; "soul" here means the self, so the phrase is simply "the one I love."

8The people who belong to me have become like a lion in the forest to me. She roars at me. So I have come to hate her.

8Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.

NoteIn Hebrew, to "hate" in a context like this can mean to reject or turn away from, as much as to feel hatred, the opposite of choosing something rather than the opposite of loving it.

9The people who belong to me are like a speckled bird of prey, with other birds of prey circling all around her. Go, gather all the wild animals. Bring them to eat her.

9Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

NoteThe Hebrew here is genuinely uncertain. The word behind "speckled" can mean colored or dyed, and the phrase is often read as "speckled bird of prey" surrounded by hostile birds. The same consonants can also spell "hyena," which is how the oldest Greek translation read it, giving "a hyena's lair." Either way the picture is of a creature that other scavengers are closing in on.

10Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard. They have trampled my field under their feet. They have turned the land I delighted in into an empty wasteland.

10Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

Note"Pastors" in the King James means shepherds. It does not mean clergy; in Hebrew usage "shepherd" is a standard title for a king or ruler, so these are the political leaders who have wrecked the land. "My portion" means the field allotted to God as his share.

11They have made it a ruin. It lies in ruins before me and mourns. The whole land is wasted, and no one takes it to heart.

11They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

12Destroyers have come over all the bare hills in the wilderness. The sword of the LORD is eating up the land from one end to the other. No one alive has peace.

12The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.

Note"High places" here means bare hilltops in open country, the exposed ridges raiders travel along. It is not the technical sense of "high place" as a hilltop shrine found elsewhere in the Old Testament. "No flesh" means no living creature.

13They planted wheat, but have reaped thorns. They wore themselves out and gained nothing. So carry the shame of your harvest, because of the burning anger of the LORD."

13They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

Note"Revenues" in 1611 English means the yield of a harvest, not cash income. The verse also shifts from "they" to "your" partway through, turning from describing the people to addressing them directly; the Hebrew does this too.

14This is what the LORD says about all my evil neighbors, the nations that grab at the land I gave my people Israel to own: "I am about to pull them up out of their land, and I will pull the people of Judah out from among them.

14Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

Note"Neighbours" means neighboring nations (Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia and the rest), not individual people living nearby. "Touch" translates a Hebrew verb used for laying hands on something to seize it, closer to "lay hold of" than to "brush against." "Pluck out" continues the farming image that runs through the chapter: uprooting a plant.

15And after I have pulled them up, I will come back to them and feel sorry for them. I will bring each one back to his own property and his own land.

15And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

16And if those nations carefully learn the ways of my people, and swear by my name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives,' just as they once taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be settled among my people.

16And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.

NoteSwearing by a god's name was a public act of allegiance: it named the god you expected to punish you if you lied, so whose name you swore by identified whose authority you lived under. "The LORD liveth", "as surely as the LORD lives", was the standard Israelite oath formula. Baal was the storm and fertility god of Israel's Canaanite neighbors; his name means "lord" or "master." "Built in the midst of my people" uses a construction image the Hebrew often applies to a family or dynasty being established permanently.

17But if any nation will not obey, I will pull it up by the roots and destroy it, says the LORD."

17But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.