Jeremiah 12:1-6

Jeremiah’s Complaint 1You are always righteous, LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

2You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.

3Yet you know me, LORD ; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter!

4How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, “He will not see what happens to us.”

God’s Answer 5“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble Or you feel secure only in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by Or the flooding of the Jordan?

6Your relatives, members of your own family— even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.