BECAUSE THE LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. 19I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
that his name be remembered no more.”
20But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously
and test the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
21“Therefore this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, ‘Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD or you will die by our hands’—22therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. 23Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.’”
12:1You are always righteous, O 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, O 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.”
5“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
6Your brothers, 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.
7“I will forsake my house,
abandon my inheritance;
I will give the one I love
into the hands of her enemies.
8My inheritance has become to me
like a lion in the forest.
She roars at me;
therefore I hate her.
9Has not my inheritance become to me
like a speckled bird of prey
that other birds of prey surround and attack?
Go and gather all the wild beasts;
bring them to devour.
10Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard
and trample down my field;
they will turn my pleasant field
into a desolate wasteland.
11It will be made a wasteland,
parched and desolate before me;
the whole land will be laid waste
because there is no one who cares.
12Over all the barren heights in the desert
destroyers will swarm,
for the sword of the LORD will devour
from one end of the land to the other;
no one will be safe.
13They will sow wheat but reap thorns;
they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.
So bear the shame of your harvest
because of the LORD’s fierce anger.”
14This is what the LORD says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. 15But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country. 16And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people. 17But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it,” declares the LORD.
Original Meaning
THIS SECTION IS COMPRISED of prayer, lamentation/ complaint, sad reflection on Judah’s sinful state (from both the prophet and God), and prophecies on the fate of wicked neighbors (both of Jeremiah and of Judah). It is not a unified address, but as is typical with other poetic subsections of the book, various units of speech are joined editorially because of common themes: here, lamentation and petition, persecution, and punishment. The material is undated and likely derives from various times in the prophet’s ministry. The depiction of Judah’s devastation in 12:7–13 probably reflects either the first (598–597) or second Babylonian assault (587–586) on Jerusalem.
In this section readers encounter the first of the prophet’s prayerful reactions to persecution. Prayers related to his persecution, including his anger and despair, come at intervals in chapters 11–20. One often hears them described as Jeremiah’s or complaints (11:18–23; 12:1–6; 15:10–14, 15–21; 17:14–18; 18:18–23; 20:7–13, 14–18).1 Also, through these prophetic words the sad reflection of the Lord emerges in a lament over the loss of the “one I love” (12:7–8). On occasion it is difficult to discern who is represented as lamenting, Jeremiah or the Lord. Both of them react emotionally to the folly and the failures of the people.
Jeremiah’s lamentations follow the model of individual laments in the Psalter. The prophet is thereby marked as an individual who prays the prayers of Israel and as one who may confess sin, vent frustration, affirm his innocence in the face of persecution, and offer pleas for deliverance. In the account of Jeremiah’s call (ch. 1), the prophet was told that persecution and opposition would come to him. His only protection was God’s promise to watch over him and the word he would deliver. The fact that God called Jeremiah to a prophetic task did not mean that he was exempt from the doubts and depressions that strike those in position of high stress.
11:18–23. In a moment of consternation Jeremiah is shown the true intentions of neighbors from his hometown of Anathoth (a short distance north of Jerusalem). God reveals to him that they intend to humiliate him and to bring his prophetic work to an end. Indeed, the phrase “cut him off from the land of the living” (v. 19) indicates murder, as does the threat of verse 21.
Jeremiah describes himself, therefore, as a lamb led to slaughter. Neither the context nor the terminology necessarily implies the sacrificial imagery of the temple cult. The language may simply reflect the profane practice of slaughter for consumption. It does, however, strongly imply that Jeremiah is innocent of any wrongdoing. A lamb led to slaughter carries with it the imagery of nonaggression and nonculpability on the part of the lamb. Jeremiah’s predicament is not God’s judgment on him but the plot of others (including some inhabitants of Anathoth, cf. 11:21–23; 12:6) who oppose his message and seek to harm him. They want him to stop prophesying as he has been in the name of the Lord.
The short prayer of the prophet in verse 20 is based on the conviction that God is a righteous Judge. Jeremiah asks not only for deliverance2—which is one task a judge can perform—but also for God to judge those who persecute him unjustly. God, who is able to assess the motives of heart, mind, and will, reveals that persecution of Jeremiah comes because he has sought to deliver God’s word to Judah.
Verses 21–23 reveal a judgment on those who seek Jeremiah’s life. Both verses 21 and 22 contain the formula “This is what the LORD says,” giving a double emphasis to the judgment to come on the persecutors of the prophet.
12:1–6. Jeremiah again addresses the Lord in prayer, stating a premise about God’s righteousness similar to that expressed in 11:20. The NIV translation of 12:1 may be rendered differently, “(Because) you are righteous, O LORD, I would plead a case3 with you.” The case or issue that Jeremiah brings is not just that of threat to his life (although this is a primary element); it is also the question of why a righteous God allows the way of the wicked to prosper. If God is so clearly opposed to the activity of the wicked, then why not judge them and be done with it? Jeremiah prays for the destruction of the wicked because of the harm they have brought to the land and asks that they (instead of he) be taken off like sheep for the slaughter. Readers can see why this passage follows that of the description of Jeremiah’s persecution in 11:18–23.
God’s reply (12:5–6) does not deal with the larger question of evil’s prosperity or even the more restricted question of immediate judgment on those who oppose Jeremiah and ruin the land. Instead, God speaks to Jeremiah as the one called to be a prophet to the nations. This reply is couched in terms of the conflict at hand in Judah and the heavy task of prophetic work that remains. Jeremiah may be weary already by the strain of prophetic duty, but there is yet more difficulty ahead. There is no way around either persecution or the wearying strain of prophetic work, yet there will be a way through it. Jeremiah is not to trust even his relatives; rather, he is to look to the Lord for his strength and to the vindication the Lord will reveal in the future.
Jeremiah offers a quotation of the people in 12:4 to the effect that they doubt that God sees what is happening to them since he fails to act. They too (according to Jeremiah’s prayer of frustration) see a God of inactivity. God does not “take the bait” and offer a defense of his providence. He simply calls the prophet to keep on the task at hand.
12:7–13. God sets forth his own complaint and announcement of judgment over the loss of his people. Here is evidence that the Lord is pained by the folly of his house. The previously revealed reply to Jeremiah in 12:5–6 does not reflect God’s indifference to the prophet’s precarious circumstances but recognizes the advanced state of decay in Judah and Jerusalem, the consequences of which neither Jeremiah nor God can avoid.
Verse 7 describes Judah as God’s house, as his inheritance, and as the one whom God loves. All of this is family imagery and metaphor. As the head of his household, God experiences pain at its ruination and at the perversion of his inheritance. Verse 8 describes the city as transformed into an animal against God, and God’s comment is that he “hates” her. Behind the reference to “her” is the metaphor of “daughter Jerusalem,” a precious member of God’s household. This is the language of a betrayed father and husband grappling with the enormity of treachery in the family. In this case the hatred is not the opposite of love, which is indifference, but the sad effects of betrayed and wounded love.
12:14–17. This word about the neighboring states around Judah anticipates elements in the oracles concerning foreign nations in chapters 25, 46–51. It sits somewhat surprisingly in this context, but it offers important perspective on the function of judgmental prophecies. The announcement of judgment may be in service to a larger design for blessing and reconciliation.
According to 2 Kings 24:2, bands of Arameans, Ammonites, and Moabites were marauders against Judah and Jerusalem. Psalm 137:7 quotes Edomite voices who urged the destruction of Jerusalem. The Edomites are the object of bitter feelings in Lamentations 4:21–22 and in the prophecy of Obadiah (cf. Mal. 1:2–5). The neighbors who are against Judah and who taught God’s people to swear by Baal will be judged and exiled (“uprooted”) along with Judah, but they may yet have a future if they should learn the ways of the Lord. This is in line with the restoration prophecy of Amos 9:11–12, that the remnants of Edom may be incorporated in the booth of David that God will rebuild.
Bridging Contexts
THE LANGUAGE OF LAMENT/COMPLAINT. Jeremiah’s anxiety about life and his distress over his persecution are expressed in the language of lamentation or complaint. Put differently, his prayers are similar to the individual complaints in the Psalter, from which he has drawn his vocabulary and spiritual sustenance. This is a clue to their appropriation for today.
In recent decades scholars have debated the extent to which the prayers in Jer. 11:20 and 12:1–4 (and others) reflect the personal experiences of Jeremiah. Older commentators, especially nineteenth-and twentieth-century liberals, found in these prayers the key to the inner life and religious experience of the prophet. With the advent of form-critical analysis (genre identification), it became clear that Jeremiah’s prayers are “typical” in that they represent the faith posture and the language of the Psalms. In reaction to the almost romantic reading of liberal individualism, some scholars have argued that the prophet’s own experience is almost completely submerged behind the standard form of typical prayers.
However one assesses this issue, Jeremiah clearly prays to God as Israelites before him had done in times of crisis and self-doubt. More particularly, not only has Jeremiah been instructed by the classical prayers of his ancestors; his own adoption of them become instruction for his readers and hearers. Perhaps this issue is more crucial for modern appropriation than a rehash of the debate over his personal experience. Jeremiah chooses a vehicle that expresses his personal experience, and that vehicle gives shape to his words. The prophet’s prayers, his personal experience, his public acts, and so on are all vehicles for proclamation and instruction rather a simple reporting of his feelings.
When we affirm that Jeremiah’s own particular experience is mediated through the text, we also affirm that it paradigmatic; it is the result of his being called to the prophetic office (see comments below). Jeremiah finds “his voice” among the prayers of David and other ancestors in the faith, and we are told as much about the trials of the office as of the inner life of the person.
Since these prayers do not preserve a specific public setting in the book, later readers do not know how (or even if) these words were given to Jeremiah’s contemporaries in Judah. While this remains a mystery, they are obviously meant to be instructive to readers of the book since they are preserved in the book. This is their primary function, although it is certainly plausible that Jeremiah looked for ways to make his prayers a teaching device for his contemporaries.
The individual and corporate laments/complaints of the Psalter, the largest single “type” (genre) in that book, reflect the personal crises of people of faith, including even the king. They can be model prayers for the faithful, but this is not required for them to be instructive for either ancient or modern readers. They provide a vocabulary through which to articulate trial and anguish, and they point to God as sympathetic Shepherd and righteous Judge.
The majority of the psalms deal with the power of the forces arrayed against God’s servant(s), the plea to the Lord for vindication and deliverance through his judging the wicked, and confidence in God’s power to redeem the circumstances of those who pray. Less often they are concerned with the effects of personal transgression (e.g., Ps. 51). Jeremiah prays to God, who knows the heart and mind and who judges righteously; in boldness he reminds God of his (God’s) righteousness while at the same time bringing before him observations concerning the ascendancy of evil. In all this Jeremiah prays like the saints of previous generations, including David himself, who clung to the God of righteousness in spite of outward circumstances.
The prophetic office and persecution. A second contextual reading of the prayers sees them as reflective of a dual setting: the prophetic office to which Jeremiah was called and an illustration of the persecution announced at his call as sure to come against his prophetic activity. These two elements are related. In Jeremiah 1, a variety of opponents was noted who would stand against Jeremiah and his prophetic message (1:8, 17–19). His persecution, while real and personal, came to him as a result of his prophetic work.
Jeremiah is not the only servant of God to be opposed and persecuted, for he stands in a line of suffering prophetic figures reaching back to Moses and continuing past Jeremiah to Jesus. He was granted what Jesus calls a prophet’s reward (Matt. 5:11–12). Jeremiah is also one of the great cloud of scriptural witnesses, one from the line of faithful servants who endured hostility for the sake of God’s call (Heb. 11). Thus, Jeremiah’s persecution is linked precisely to his call as a prophet, and its intensity of degree is pronounced because of the office. One bridge from Jeremiah’s world to ours runs through the exercise of prophetic ministry and its consequences.
Christological reading. A Christological reading of this section begins with this recognition that Jeremiah’s opposition is linked to his role as God’s prophet. On the one hand, opposition to Jeremiah was ultimately opposition to God, who sent him. Thus Jeremiah’s anguish is humanly indicative of God’s own anguish over rejection. This point comes out in God’s own complaint over the failure of his house in Jer. 12:7–13. On the other hand, the prophetic suffering of Jeremiah was a step along the way of God’s dealings with Israel that in the fullness of time would bring forth God’s Son, Jesus, his suffering representative and the Messiah of Israel. Jeremiah’s suffering is not redemptive as is that of Jesus, but it is representative of the prophetic office and thereby “prophetic” for the suffering of Christ.
Jesus brought the prophetic office to culmination in his call to repentance and in his suffering on behalf of righteousness.4 In a mysterious way Jesus learned obedience from the things he suffered (Heb. 2:10; 5:8); his persecution became the way of salvation for those for whom he died. In his innocence Jesus had every right to call for judgment on those who persecuted him (as Jeremiah did), but his dependence on God’s righteousness meant that he left judgment to him (1 Peter 2:20–25).
The lamb led to slaughter is Jeremiah’s self-designation. John describes Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Scripture is rich with imagery of the lamb or sheep for slaughter (e.g., Gen. 22; Ex. 12–13), and Jeremiah’s innocent prophetic suffering is one element of the biblical tapestry related to suffering and redemption. In his self-offering, Christ’s redemptive work includes forgiveness of the evildoers—a miracle of grace that moves beyond Jeremiah’s own words but not beyond the reach of the God who inspires the prophet.
Israel’s neighbors. The word about the neighbors (Jer. 12:14–17) is related both to God’s concern for the nations’ salvation and God’s intention to judge them with righteousness. These matters are of broad interest to the biblical writers, with the New Testament emphasizing as of first importance the concern that the gospel be preached to all the nations. Jeremiah’s word relates first of all to temporal judgment, but it holds out the possibility that the neighbors will be restored in their homeland and related to the Lord. It remains for the New Testament to spell out in more detail just what a glorious inheritance the nations may have in God’s Son.
Contemporary Significance
THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP. Jeremiah’s words about his persecution come from the discharge of his prophetic office. They also raise for Christians the issue of the cost of discipleship, what might be termed the relationship between Christian vocation and suffering when disciples take up their cross and follow Christ. Family and friends alike apparently opposed Jeremiah’s prophetic activity. His opposition, his despair, and even the threats to his life came not from his sinfulness but from the exercise of his faith in responding to God’s call. This is a perennial issue for Christians, more likely in some cultures and settings than in others, but a perennial issue nevertheless.
In the Bridging Contexts section we have already noted the fellowship of suffering that the prophet represents and in which he has a well-deserved place. To name just three current examples, Christians in Indonesia, in the Philippines, and in Sudan have been attacked simply because they believe in Christ. The treatment of some of them is horribly close to that of a lamb led to slaughter. To be fair, one should cite also the despicable treatment of Jews in the country of Iran, where many were put on trial in the summer months of 2000 and charged with being agents for the state of Israel. There is no evidence, of course, to support these charges. Their only crime seems to be that they held to their faith in the God of Israel in spite of overwhelming pressure to do otherwise.
God’s righteousness. We should take note of Jeremiah’s words to the Lord about God’s righteousness. That righteousness is the presupposition to all that is uttered in this section, even the questioning of God’s judging that comes in 12:1–2. It is the anchor to which the prophet clings in spite of his circumstances. Jeremiah will not be able to depend on his own righteousness; this is clear even though these prayers presume that Jeremiah is innocent of any wrongdoing with respect to the charges of his opponents.
Jeremiah will not be able to depend on his own patience or resourcefulness. He knows full well that his life means little except that God has made certain promises to him, and it is only because of his belief in God’s righteousness (God’s integrity) that he has any hope. Because of what Jeremiah believes about God’s integrity, he can pray both bluntly and expectantly about the exercise of God’s righteousness. In faith he can even note its seeming absence.
Jeremiah also prays for God’s vindication because of what he believes about God’s righteousness. Vindication for Jeremiah means deliverance from the plots of his opponents and God’s judgment on them. Christians should listen carefully for what Jeremiah actually prays. He seeks the exercise of God’s righteousness, not the fulfillment of his wish list for vengeance. Jeremiah has no vendetta against his opponents, and he does not seek to judge them himself; he simply holds up their activities in persecuting God’s prophet before the judgment seat of God. For God to be faithful to his promise to Jeremiah as prophet to the nations, those who persecute him will fail at their task to silence him. For them to persist in persecution is to invite the very judgment of God on themselves that they have mistakenly sought to perpetrate on Jeremiah. This does not make Jeremiah invulnerable; he remains a man whose only security resides in his trust of God’s righteousness.
When Christians pray for their enemies and those who persecute them, they pray that God will grant the persecutors the ability to recognize their errors and see the way to a forgiveness that is ultimately God’s to give. Their deeds deserve his judgment, yet by his grace that judgment has been borne by someone else. If God’s grace is spurned, then nothing else in all of creation can save them. The prayer “Your kingdom come” includes the assumption that judgment as well as mercy are part of the exercise of God’s righteousness. Because Christ met suffering in a way that Jeremiah could not, there is the marvelous possibility that his enemies will meet with a transforming judgment and restoration that Jeremiah could not completely foresee.
Does this make Jeremiah’s prayer for vindication and judgment wrong for Christians to use? No. But what they should pray for is the vindication of the gospel and the frustration of plans for its subversion. This is consistent with Jeremiah’s own plea for the exercise of God’s righteousness and the vindication of the message he has been given by God.
The ultimate answer. God’s “answer” to Jeremiah in 12:5–6 is not an explanation of why evil may have its ascendant day any more than the book of Job provides an answer to evil and suffering. God’s reply does not even tell Jeremiah how God will vindicate him. It is less an answer and more a somber indication that to run the race of prophetic office before him, Jeremiah will be stretched more than he can yet imagine. So he must be prepared! This is also a word about the life of discipleship, about the process of refinement and growth in grace, and about trust in God in spite of difficult circumstances. It is not a philosophical discussion about the justification of God’s ways and timing to the prophet.
Christian faith is well instructed by this surprising word from Jeremiah. At most points along the journey of faith, we cannot see the twists and turns that will make up our witness. And why should we know more than that our life is hid in Christ and that our ultimate vindication rests with him? Our relationship with God is not a panacea for life’s problems but the basis on which we face those problems. Our strength is not our own. Should we seek to run the race with our own resources, we will ultimately fail. Should we run the race in dependence on God, we are not guaranteed victory according to worldly standards either, only that we belong to God.
In considering this surprising word in Jer. 12:5–6, therefore, one is forcefully reminded that God has not abandoned Jeremiah. His timing and purpose are simply not revealed completely to the prophet, who is told that he must be prepared for more difficult days ahead. This is not so different from the words that the apostle Paul spoke to the Philippians about pressing on toward the goal of God’s call in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12–14). It is an arduous journey with twists and turns throughout, but the pioneer of salvation, Jesus Christ himself (Heb. 12:2), has pointed us to the journey’s end and offers his companionship along the way.