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Jeremiah 12:1-13:17

Jeremiah questions the LORD. (Jr.12.1-6)

12¹Your uprightness is too great, Yahweh, for me to dispute with you.
But I should like to discuss some points of justice with you:
Why is it that the way of the wicked prospers?
Why do all treacherous people thrive?
²You plant them, they take root,
they flourish, yes, and bear fruit.
You are on their lips,
yet far from their heart.
³You know me, Yahweh, you see me,
you probe my heart, which is close to yours.
Drag them off like sheep for the slaughterhouse,
reserve them for the day of butchery.

⁴(How long will the land be in mourning, and the grass wither all over the countryside? The animals and birds are dying as a result of the wickedness of the inhabitants.) For they say, 'God does not see our fate.'

⁵'If you find it exhausting to race against me on foot,
how will you compete against horses?
In a country at peace you feel secure,
but how will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan?

()

⁶'For even your brothers and your own family will betray you. They will pursue you in full cry. Put no faith in them when they speak you fair!'

The LORD's sorrow because of his people. (Jr.12.7-13)

⁷I have abandoned my house,
left my heritage,
I have delivered what I dearly loved
into the clutches of its enemies.
⁸To me, my heritage has behaved like a lion in the forest,
it roared at me ferociously: so I now hate it.
⁹I see my heritage as a brightly-coloured bird of prey
attacked by birds of prey on every side!
Go, assemble all the wild animals,
make them come and dine!
¹⁰Many shepherds have laid my vineyard waste,
have trampled over my plot of land,
the plot of land which was my joy,
reducing my favourite estate to a deserted wilderness.
¹¹They have made it a waste;
wasted, it mourns before me.
The whole country has been devastated
and no one takes it to heart.
¹²The devastators have arrived on all the bare heights of the desert
(for Yahweh wields a devouring sword);
from one end of the country to the other,
there is no peace for any living thing.
¹³Wheat they have sown, thorns they reap:
they have worn themselves out, to no profit.
They are disappointed in their harvests,
because of Yahweh's burning anger.

The LORD's promise to Israel's neighbours. (Jr.12.14-17)

¹⁴Yahweh says this, 'As regards all my evil neighbours who have laid hands on the heritage I granted my people Israel, look, I shall uproot them from their soil, (though I shall uproot the House of Judah from among them). ¹⁵But having uprooted them, I shall take pity on them again and bring them back each to its own heritage, each to its own country, ¹⁶and if they carefully learn my people's ways and swear by my name, 'As Yahweh lives', as they have taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be re-established among my people. ¹⁷But if any nation refuses to listen, I shall uproot it for ever and destroy it, Yahweh declares.'

The linen waistcloth. (Jr.13.1-11)

13¹Yahweh said this to me, 'Go and buy a linen waistcloth and put it round your waist. But do not dip it in water.' ²And so, as Yahweh had ordered, I bought a waistcloth and put it round my waist. ³A second time the word of Yahweh came to me, ⁴'Take the waistcloth that you have bought and are wearing round your waist. Up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock.' ⁵So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as Yahweh had ordered me. ⁶A long time later, Yahweh said to me, 'Up, go to the Euphrates and fetch the waistcloth I ordered you to hide there.' ⁷So I went to the Euphrates, and I searched, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And there was the waistcloth ruined, no use for anything. ⁸Then the word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows, ⁹'Yahweh says this, 'In the same way I shall ruin the pride of Judah, the immense pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰This evil people, these people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow their own stubborn inclinations and run after other gods, serving and worshipping them—this people will become like this waistcloth, no good for anything. ¹¹For just as a waistcloth clings to a man's waist, so I made the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah cling to me, Yahweh declares, to be my people, my glory, my honour and my pride. But they have not listened.'

The wine-jar. (Jr.13.12-14)

¹²'You will also say this to them, 'Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: Any jug can be filled with wine.' And if they answer you, 'Do you think we do not know that any jug can be filled with wine?' ¹³you are to say, 'Yahweh says this: Look, I shall fill all the inhabitants of this country, the kings who occupy the throne of David, the priests, the prophets and all the citizens of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. ¹⁴Then I shall smash them one against the other, parents and children all together, Yahweh declares. Mercilessly, relentlessly, pitilessly, I shall destroy them.' '

A warning against pride. (Jr.13.15-27)

¹⁵Listen and pay attention, do not be proud:
Yahweh is speaking!
¹⁶Give glory to Yahweh your God before the darkness comes,
before your feet stumble on the darkened mountains.
You hope for light,
but he will turn it to shadow dark as death,
will change it to blackness.
¹⁷If you do not listen to this warning,
I shall weep in secret for your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly and stream with tears,
for Yahweh's flock is being led into captivity.