Jeremiah 12:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Righteous art thou, O Lord The prophet, being about to inquire into the reasons and meaning of some of the divine dispensations, first recognises a truth of unquestionable certainty, namely, that God is righteous, that is, just and holy in all his ways. Thus he arms himself against the temptations wherewith he was assaulted, to envy the prosperity of the wicked, before he begins to plead with God concerning it. And, in imitation of him, when we are least able to understand the intent of the divine counsels and proceedings, we must still resolve to retain just thoughts of God, and must be confident of this, that he never did and never will do the least wrong to any of his creatures; that even when his judgments are unsearchable as a great deep, and altogether unaccountable, yet his righteousness is as conspicuous and immoveable as the great mountains, Psalms 36:6. Yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Not by way of accusing thee, but for my own satisfaction concerning thy dispensations in the government of the world. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Why are their designs and projects successful? Why are all they happy that deal very treacherously? Why are the affairs and families of the perfidious and unjust in a prosperous state? Why dost thou permit this? What end of thy righteous government is to be answered by it? By all they, he means many of them, and is thought to have spoken thus with a special reference to the priests at Anathoth, who had conspired against his life. The prosperity of the wicked hath, in all ages, been a mystery, and hath served to furnish infidels with an objection against the providence of God, and, upon that account, hath been a source of temptation to many of God's people.