Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper
1 You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to plead a case 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. 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.” 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? 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. 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. 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. 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.” 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. 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. 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.
Jeremiah brings the oldest complaint in Scripture and gets an answer that promises harder conditions rather than relief.
He opens by conceding the verdict before arguing the case: You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I would like to plead a case with you. The concession is not politeness. It fixes the terms of the complaint. A man who has already granted that God is right is not asking for a different verdict but for an explanation. The question itself is the standing one — why the wicked prosper — and he sharpens it by attributing their prosperity to God directly. You planted them, they took root, they grow, they produce fruit. And then the diagnosis in six words, which is the whole book compressed: You are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.
The answer he receives is famous for not being an answer. If running with men on foot has worn him out, what will he do against horses? If he stumbles in open country, how will he manage the thickets along the Jordan where the lions were? Nothing is explained and nothing is denied. He is told that the present difficulty is the easy stage. That is either the cruelest reply in the prophets or the most respectful, depending on whether a man asking that question wants comfort or wants to be taken seriously. The confirmation that follows grants his facts entirely: even your brothers and your father's house have dealt treacherously with you.
Then the passage turns, and what turns it is that God begins to speak about his own losses in the same register. 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. Three verbs of abandonment, each with a term of ownership attached, and the last with an endearment. The vineyard is trampled by many shepherds. The land mourns. And the reason it stays desolate is given in four words that indict everyone still standing: because no one cares. Jeremiah asked why the wicked are at ease. The reply, when it eventually comes, is a description of a God who is not.
The chapter closes on something unexpected. The neighboring nations that have preyed on Israel will be plucked up — and then, after the plucking, God says he will return and have compassion on them, and bring each man back to his own land. More than that: if they will learn the ways of his people and swear by his name, as they once taught his people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the middle of my people. The traffic that carried idolatry into Israel is imagined running the other way, with the same nations taught the same way. The offer is genuine enough to carry the same condition Judah was given. Only the last verse holds the alternative, and it is the same alternative. If they will not hear, they will be plucked up.
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