Jeremiah 11:18-12:4

International Children’s Bible

Evil Plans Against Jeremiah

¹⁸The Lord showed me that men were making plans against me. The Lord showed me what they were doing. So I knew they were against me. ¹⁹Before this, I was like a gentle lamb waiting to be butchered. I did not know they had made plans against me. They said:

“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit!
    Let’s kill him!
    Then people will forget him!”
²⁰But, Lord of heaven’s armies, you are a fair judge.
    You know how to test peoples’ hearts and minds.
I will tell you what I have against them.
    And I will let you give them the punishment they should have!

²¹So the Lord speaks about the men from Anathoth who were planning to kill Jeremiah. Those men say, “Don’t prophesy in the name of the Lord. If you do, we will kill you!” ²²So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says: “I will soon punish the men from Anathoth. Their young men will die in war. Their sons and daughters will die from hunger. ²³No one from the city of Anathoth will be left alive. I will cause a disaster to happen to them that year.”

Jeremiah’s First Complaint

12 Lord, if I complain to you,
    you are always right.
But I want to ask you about the justice you give.
    Why are evil people successful?
    Why do dishonest people have such easy lives?
²You have put the evil people here.
    They are like plants with strong roots.
    They grow and produce fruit.
With their mouths they speak well of you.
    But their hearts are really far away from you.
³But you know my heart, Lord.
    You see me and test my mind.
Drag the evil people away like sheep to be butchered.
    Set them aside for the day of killing.
⁴How much longer will the land stay dried up?
    How long will the grass in every field be dead?
The animals and birds in the land have died.
    And it is because the people are evil.
Yet, they are saying,
    “God does not see what happens to us!”