微读圣经

Jeremiah’s Complaint

1You will be righteous, Lord,12:1 Ezr 9:15; Neh 9:8,33; Ps 119:137

even if I bring a case against you.

Yet, I wish to contend with you:12:1 Jb 9:14–15; 13:13–28; 23:2–17

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?12:1 Ps 73

Why do all the treacherous live at ease?

2You planted them,12:2 Ps 1:3; Jr 17:7–8 and they have taken root.

They have grown and produced fruit.

You are ever on their lips,12:2 Lit are near in their mouth

but far from their conscience.12:2 Lit kidneys12:2 Ps 28:3; Is 29:13

3As for you, Lord, you know me; you see me.12:3 Ps 139; Jr 1:5

You test whether my heart is with you.12:3 Ps 7:9; Jr 11:20

Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughter12:3 Jr 11:19

and set them apart for the day of killing.

4How long will the land mourn12:4 Is 24:4–7; Jr 4:28; 23:10

and the grass of every field wither?

Because of the evil of its residents,

animals and birds have been swept away,12:4 Zph 1:3

for the people have said,

“He cannot see what our end will be.”12:4 LXX reads see our ways12:4 Dt 32:20; Jb 22:13; Jr 29:11

The Lord’s Response

5If you have raced with runners

and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble12:5 Or you are secure in a peaceful land,

what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?12:5 Jr 50:44

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

even they were treacherous to you;12:6 Jn 1:11

even they have cried out loudly after you.12:6 Jr 11:19

Do not have confidence in them,

though they speak well of you.

7I have abandoned my house;12:7 Ezk 8:1–11:25

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.12:8 Hs 9:15; Am 6:8

9Is my inheritance like a hyena12:9 Hb obscure to me?

Are birds of prey circling her?

Go, gather all the wild animals;12:9 Is 56:9; Jr 7:33

bring them to devour her.

10Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;

they have trampled my plot of land.12:10 Is 63:18

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.12:11 Is 42:25

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.12:12 2Ch 15:5; Is 48:22; Ezk 13:16

13They have sown wheat but harvested thorns.12:13 Lv 26:16; Dt 28:38; Hs 8:7; Mc 6:15; Hg 1:6

They have exhausted themselves but have no profit.12:13 Is 55:2

Be put to shame by your harvests

because of the Lord’s burning anger.12:13 Jr 4:26; 25:37–38

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 them12:14 Jr 1:10; 18:7–8 from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them.

15After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion12:15 Jr 30:18; 31:20; 33:26; 42:12 on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.

16If they will diligently learn the ways of my people12:16 Is 2:2–4; Mc 4:1–5 — 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.”12:17 Is 60:12

This is the Lord’s declaration.

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