Jeremiah 12:1–6

¹Righteous are You, O LORD,

when I plead before You.

Yet about Your judgments

I wish to contend with You:

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

Why do all the faithless live at ease?

²You planted them, and they have taken root.

They have grown and produced fruit.

You are ever on their lips,

but far from their hearts.^a

³But You know me, O LORD;

You see me and test my heart toward You.

Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter

and set them apart for the day of carnage.

⁴How long will the land mourn

and the grass of every field be withered?

Because of the evil of its residents,

the animals and birds have been swept away,

for the people have said,

“He cannot see what our end will be.”

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 a peaceful land,

how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

⁶Even your brothers—

your own father’s household—

even they have betrayed you;

even they have cried aloud against you.

Do not trust them,

though they speak well of you.