The first of Scripture's great honest complaints: 'Righteous art thou, O Jehovah, when I contend with thee; yet would I reason the cause with thee: wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?' (12:1). Thou hast planted them, and they take root and bring forth fruit. God's answer refuses comfort and offers commission instead: 'If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?' His heritage has become to him a lion in the forest, a speckled bird set upon. Yet even the plucked-up neighbor nations are promised compassion if they learn to swear by his name.

Drawn from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory, Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary, John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and John Calvin, Commentaries.

Context

Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview

A. 1–6 Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper?
B. 7–13 My Heritage Become as a Speckled Bird of Prey
C. 14–17 Plucking Up and Planting Again the Evil Neighbours

Top cross-references8 chapters ▾

Jeremiah 92 verses
- Jeremiah 9:4Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.
- Jeremiah 9:10For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
- Read Jeremiah 9 →
Jeremiah 232 verses
- Jeremiah 23:1Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.
- Jeremiah 23:10For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
- Read Jeremiah 23 →
Jeremiah 492 verses
- Jeremiah 49:6And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith the Lord.
- Jeremiah 49:39But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord.
- Read Jeremiah 49 →
Malachi 31 verse
- Malachi 3:15And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
- Read Malachi 3 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Psalms 921 verse
- Psalms 92:7When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
- Read Psalms 92 →
Psalms 371 verse
- Psalms 37:1Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
- Read Psalms 37 →
Isaiah 291 verse
- Isaiah 29:13Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
- Read Isaiah 29 →
Titus 11 verse
- Titus 1:16They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
- Read Titus 1 →

Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.