Jeremiah 12 explained: Why Do the Wicked Do Well?

Jeremiah's complaint (vv. 1-4)

Jeremiah affirms that God is fair, yet asks why people who speak of God but don't mean it grow rich and comfortable, and he bluntly asks that they be led off like sheep to slaughter. A drought is withering the land, and the people scoff that their end will never be seen; scholars are unsure whether they mean God won't see it or Jeremiah won't.

God's tough answer (vv. 5-6)

God answers with a proverb: if racing runners wears you out, how will you race horses, or cope in the thick, wild brush along the Jordan River? The men of Jeremiah's hometown had already plotted against him, and now God warns that even his own relatives are against him, however kindly they speak.

God gives up his beloved (vv. 7-9)

God speaks of leaving his own house and handing over the people he dearly loves to their enemies, because they have turned on him like a roaring lion. The image of a speckled bird mobbed by other birds is puzzling, and some ancient versions read it as a hyena, but it seems to picture Judah surrounded by attackers.

The land laid waste (vv. 10-13)

The shepherds trampling God's vineyard are most likely foreign rulers and their armies, probably Babylon, sweeping over Judah from end to end. People will sow wheat and reap thorns, and the text plainly calls this the fierce anger of the LORD.

Hope for the neighbors (vv. 14-17)

The nearby nations who seized Israel's land will also be uprooted, yet God promises to bring them home again as well. If they learn to swear by the LORD, as they once taught Israel to swear by the god Baal, they will have a place among God's people, but any nation that refuses will be destroyed.

Key verse: Jeremiah 12:1

Something to think about

When dishonest people seem to be rewarded and honest ones seem to struggle, how do you make sense of that?