Jeremiah 12

Jeremiah’s Complaint

12You are always righteous,^d Lord,

when I bring a case^e before you.

Yet I would speak with you about your justice:^f

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?^g

Why do all the faithless live at ease?

²You have planted^h them, and they have taken root;

they grow and bear fruit.ⁱ

You are always on their lips

but far from their hearts.^j

³Yet you know me, Lord;

you see me and test^k my thoughts about you.

Drag them off like sheep^l to be butchered!

Set them apart for the day of slaughter!^m

⁴How long will the land lie parchedⁿ

and the grass in every field be withered?^o

Because those who live in it are wicked,

the animals and birds have perished.^p

Moreover, the people are saying,

“He will not see what happens to us.”

God’s Answer

⁵“If you have raced with men on foot

and they have worn you out,

how can you compete with horses?

If you stumble^a in safe country,

how will you manage in the thickets^q by^b the Jordan?

⁶Your relatives, members of your own family—

even they have betrayed you;

they have raised a loud cry against you.^r

Do not trust them,

though they speak well of you.^s

⁷“I will forsake^t my house,

abandon^u my inheritance;

I will give the one I love^v

into the hands of her enemies.^w

⁸My inheritance has become to me

like a lion^x in the forest.

She roars at me;

therefore I hate her.^y

⁹Has not my inheritance become to me

like a speckled bird of prey

that other birds of prey surround and attack?

Go and gather all the wild beasts;

bring them to devour.^z

¹⁰Many shepherds^a will ruin my vineyard

and trample down my field;

they will turn my pleasant field

into a desolate wasteland.^b

¹¹It will be made a wasteland,^c

parched and desolate before me;^d

the whole land will be laid waste

because there is no one who cares.

¹²Over all the barren heights in the desert

destroyers will swarm,

for the sword^e of the Lord^f will devour^g

from one end of the land to the other;^h

no one will be safe.ⁱ

¹³They will sow wheat but reap thorns;

they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.^j

They will bear the shame of their harvest

because of the Lord’s fierce anger.”^k

¹⁴This is what the Lord says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance^l I gave my people Israel, I will uproot^m them from their lands and I will uprootⁿ the people of Judah from among them. ¹⁵But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion^o and will bring^p each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. ¹⁶And if they learn^q well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’^r—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal^s—then they will be established among my people.^{t 17}But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy^u it,” declares the Lord.