Bible Strands
Jeremiah 12:1
Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks directly to Yahweh, opening a legal petition in which he concedes God's righteousness before contesting God's judgments. The immediate context (v. 2) names the target: the wicked who have taken root, produced fruit, and keep God on their lips while remaining far from their hearts.
The words — אָרִיב ('ariv, H7378) is a legal verb meaning "I bring a case" or "I plead"; it frames the complaint as a formal argument before a judge. מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim, H4941) is the object of contention — God's specific judgments, not his character.
The thread — Malachi 3:15 records the same complaint in corporate form: "we call the arrogant blessed… they test God and escape." Psalms 92:7 and 37:1 answer from the opposite direction, insisting the wicked's flourishing is temporary and the reader must not envy it.
Why it lands — The verse does not resolve the tension it raises; it forces the reader to hold God's declared righteousness and the visible prosperity of the wicked in the same sentence without smoothing either away.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
Cross-references
- Malachi 3:15 So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”
- Psalms 92:7 that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.
- Psalms 37:1 Of David. Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.
- Psalms 37:35 I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- Psalms 51:4 Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.
- Psalms 73:3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
- Psalms 94:3 How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked exult?
- Daniel 9:7 To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but this day we are covered with shame—the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel near and far, in all the countries to which You have driven us because of our unfaithfulness to You.
- Habakkuk 1:4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.
- Zephaniah 3:5 The LORD within her is righteous; He does no wrong. He applies His justice morning by morning; He does not fail at dawn, yet the unjust know no shame.