12:1 Lord, you have always been fair
whenever I have complained to you.1
However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice.2
Why are wicked people successful?3
Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?
12:2 You planted them here on earth and they have put down their roots.4
They have grown prosperous and been very fruitful.5
They are always talking about you,
but they really care nothing about you.6
12:3 But you, Lord, know all about me.
You watch me and test my devotion to you.7
Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered.
Appoint a time when they will be killed.8
12:4 How long must the land be dried up9
and the grass in every field be withered?
How long10 must the animals and the birds die
because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land?11
For these people say,
“God12 will not see what happens to us.”13
“If you have raced against men on foot and they have worn you out,
how will you be able to compete with horses?
And if you feel secure only15 in safe and open country,16
how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River?17
12:6 As a matter of fact,18 even your own brothers and the members of your own family have betrayed you too. Even they have lifted up loud cries to do away with you.19 So do not believe them even when they say kind things20 to you.
12:7 “I will abandon my nation.21
I will forsake the people I call my own.22
I will turn my beloved people23
over to the power24 of their enemies.
12:8 The people I call my own25 have turned on me
like a lion26 in the forest.
They have roared defiantly27 at me.
So I will treat them as though I hate them.28
12:9 The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or hyenas.29
But other birds of prey are all around them.30
Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts.
Let them come and destroy these people I call my own.31
12:10 Many foreign rulers32 will ruin the land where I planted my people.33
They will trample all over my chosen land.34
They will turn my beautiful land
into a desolate wasteland.
12:11 They will lay it waste.
It will lie parched35 and empty before me.
The whole land will be laid waste.
But no one living in it will pay any heed.36
12:12 A destructive army37 will come sweeping
over the hilltops in the desert.
For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon
against38 everyone from one end of the land to the other.
No one will be safe.39
12:13 My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds.40
They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it.
They will be disappointed in their harvests41
because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger.42
12:14 “I, the Lord, also have something to say concerning43 the wicked nations who surround my land44 and have attacked and plundered45 the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession.46 I say, ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there.47 12:15 But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent48 and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands49 and to their own country. 12:16 But they must carefully learn to follow the religious practices of my people.50 Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal.51 But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, I swear.”52 If they do these things,53 then they will be included among the people I call my own.54 12:17 But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,’”55 says the Lord.
An Object Lesson from Ruined Linen Shorts