Why does Jeremiah say that the Lord plants the wicked and that the Lord is “near in their mouth, and far from their heart”?
Jeremiah’s struggle and questioning continues as he says to the Lord, You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit.
Jeremiah seems to have the words of Psalm 1:1–6 in mind. In the psalm, it is the Lord who plants the righteous near streams of living water and they are fruitful. The wicked are like chaff that is blown away. But here it is the other way around.1 Jeremiah is essentially saying that the Lord is responsible for the presence of the wicked in the land and for their prospering. To make matters even worse, these wicked men are hypocrites. They have the Lord near in their mouth and far from their heart.
There is outward religious conformity but no inward love for the Lord or faithfulness. It is exactly this kind of behaviour that the Lord has so clearly condemned in Judah through his prophet and yet now the opposite seems to be happening.
2 Tu les as plantés, ils ont pris racine, Ils croissent, ils portent du fruit; Tu es près de leur bouche, Mais loin de leur cœur.