Jeremiah begins with theological submission: the LORD is righteous, yet Jeremiah still brings a hard question.
Jeremiah 12:1-4
1 You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to reason the cause with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are they all at ease who deal very treacherously?
2 You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root. They grow. Yes, they produce fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.
Jeremiah asks the LORD to drag the wicked away like sheep for slaughter because their evil has made the land mourn.
3 But you, Yahweh, know me. You see me, and test my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4 How long will the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? Because of the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals and birds are consumed; because they said, “He won’t see our latter end.”
The LORD challenges Jeremiah: if footmen weary him, how will he run with horses?
Jeremiah 12:5-6
5 “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? Though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
Even Jeremiah's relatives and household have betrayed him and raised a loud cry against him.
6 For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you! Even they have cried aloud after you! Don’t believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.
The LORD declares the painful judgment of abandoning his own inheritance because it has become hostile toward him.
Jeremiah 12:7-13
7 “I have forsaken my house. I have cast off my heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
8 My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest. She has uttered her voice against me. Therefore I have hated her.
9 Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the animals of the field. Bring them to devour.
Many shepherds ruin the vineyard and turn the pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion under foot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it a desolation. It mourns to me, being desolate. The whole land is made desolate, because no one cares.
The sword of the LORD devours the land; the people sow wheat but reap thorns.
12 Destroyers have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Yahweh devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land. No flesh has peace.
13 They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have exhausted themselves, and profit nothing. You will be ashamed of your fruits, because of Yahweh’s fierce anger.”
The nations who seize Israel's inheritance will be uprooted from their lands.
Jeremiah 12:14-17
14 Yahweh says, “Concerning all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
After judgment, the LORD will have compassion and bring each people back to its own inheritance.
15 It will happen that after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them. I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
If the nations learn the ways of the LORD, they will be established; if not, they will be uprooted and destroyed.
16 It will happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As Yahweh lives;’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the middle of my people.
17 But if they will not hear, then I will pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it,” says Yahweh.