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Jeremiah 12:5-7
New Catholic Bible
Jeremiah 12:5-7
New Catholic Bible
God’s Response
5 If you become exhausted in a footrace with men,
how will you compete with horses?
And if you fall headlong in a peaceful land,
how will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan?
6 Even your brothers and your own family
continue to deal treacherously with you
as they pursue you while shouting threats.
Do not trust them
even when they speak gentle words to you.
The Lord’s Lament[a]
7 I have abandoned my house
and forsaken my heritage.
I have given the beloved of my heart
into the hands of her enemies.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 12:7 An editor has linked to the prophet’s call for vengeance (v. 3) the following two oracles, both of which speak of the judgment of God. The passage is probably an echo of the repression that was followed by the rebellion of Jehoiakim against his sovereign (Nebuchadnezzar). With the approval of the king of Babylon, some neighboring peoples engaged in a series of raids against Judah in about 599 B.C. (see 2 Ki 24:13). An accounting for their cruelty will be demanded of them, as well as the possibility of entering into the saving covenant, provided they renounce their false god, Baal, and follow the Lord. This marks the beginning of the call to universal salvation.
