Jeremiah 12:1

Don’t let your heart envy sinners, but rather fear Yahweh all day long.

They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.

Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked;

“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.

Now therefore let the fear of Yahweh be on you. Take heed and do it; for there is no iniquity with Yahweh our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.”

I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

As for transgressors, they shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off.

Don’t envy the man of violence. Choose none of his ways.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “that you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.”

for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn’t allow you to touch her.

Therefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. May Yahweh the Judge be judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.”

Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert righteousness?

“Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, neither will he uphold the evildoers.

The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands.

Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.

Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don’t fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.

For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

If you, Yah, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?

Don’t be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them;

“Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says Yahweh.

But Yahweh of Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.

They are unfaithful to Yahweh; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

“Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’

Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him.

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

No one is greater in this house than I am, and he has not kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

Yahweh will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where Yahweh will lead you away.

But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If not he, then who is it?

“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

Don’t fret because of evildoers, neither be envious against those who work unrighteousness.

All day long my dishonor is before me, and shame covers my face,

Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, so you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

so that men shall say, “Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”

In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.

though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever.

Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay back the proud what they deserve.

It is time to act, Yahweh, for they break your law.

Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.

The foolishness of man subverts his way; his heart rages against Yahweh.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”

“I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

Then he said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion; for they say, ‘Yahweh has forsaken the land, and Yahweh doesn’t see.’

“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not equal.’ Hear now, house of Israel: Is my way not equal? Aren’t your ways unequal?

Therefore Yahweh has watched over the evil, and brought it on us; for Yahweh our God is righteous in all his works which he does, and we have not obeyed his voice.

Yahweh has taken away your judgments. He has thrown out your enemy. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is among you. You will not be afraid of evil any more.

“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is today. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for no one can stand before you because of this.”

However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.

If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.

“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.

Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me.

oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!

I have seen the wicked in great power, spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says Yahweh.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause.

Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

“Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but to us confusion of face, as it is today; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, who are near, and who are far off, through all the countries where you have driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against you.

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.

Yahweh, within her, is righteous. He will do no wrong. Every morning he brings his justice to light. He doesn’t fail, but the unjust know no shame.

We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you have sent me?

The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.

The children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and on that day destroyed twenty-two thousand of the Israelite men down to the ground.

They said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?”

Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Say on.”

He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

He was with them hidden in God’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness, from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity.

I will get my knowledge from afar, and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.

But you have rejected and spurned. You have been angry with your anointed.

Yahweh is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.

Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

You are righteous, Yahweh. Your judgments are upright.

Yahweh is righteous in all his ways, and gracious in all his works.

For the backsliding of the simple will kill them. The careless ease of fools will destroy them.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs. Glory to the righteous! But I said, “I pine away! I pine away! woe is me!” The treacherous have dealt treacherously. Yes, the treacherous have dealt very treacherously.

Produce your cause,” says Yahweh. “Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.

Yes, you didn’t hear. Yes, you didn’t know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

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.

The army was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through disobedience. It cast down truth to the ground, and it did its pleasure and prospered.

But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.

I will stand at my watch, and set myself on the ramparts, and will look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!