Chapter 12

Jeremiah’s Prayer

1 aRighteous are You, O Lord, that I would plead my case with You;

Indeed I would bdiscuss matters of justice with You:

Why has the cway of the wicked prospered?

Why are all those who ddeal in treachery at ease?

2 You have aplanted them, they have also taken root;

They grow, they have even produced fruit.

You are bnear 1to their lips

But far from their 2mind.

3 But You aknow me, O Lord;

You see me;

And You bexamine my heart’s attitude toward You.

Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter

And 1set them apart for a cday of carnage!

4 How long is the aland to mourn

And the bvegetation of the countryside to wither?

For the cwickedness of those who dwell in it,

dAnimals and birds have been snatched away,

Because men have said, “He will not see our latter eending.”

5 “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out,

Then how can you compete with horses?

If you fall down in a land of peace,

How will you do in the 1athicket of the Jordan?

6 “For even your abrothers and the household of your father,

Even they have dealt treacherously with you,

Even they have cried aloud after you.

Do not believe them, although they may say bnice things to you.”

God’s Answer

7 “I have aforsaken My house,

I have abandoned My inheritance;

I have given the bbeloved of My soul

Into the hand of her enemies.

8 “My inheritance has become to Me

Like a lion in the forest;

She has 1aroared against Me;

Therefore I have come to bhate her.

9 “Is My inheritance like a speckled bird of prey to Me?

Are the abirds of prey against her on every side?

Go, gather all the bbeasts of the field,

Bring them to devour!

10 “Many ashepherds have ruined My bvineyard,

They have ctrampled down My field;

They have made My dpleasant field

A desolate wilderness.

11 “1It has been made a desolation,

Desolate, it amourns 2before Me;

The bwhole land has been made desolate,

Because no man clays it to heart.

12 “On all the 1abare heights in the wilderness

Destroyers have come,

For a bsword of the Lord is devouring

From one end of the land even to the 2other;

There is cno peace for 3anyone.

13 “They have asown wheat and have reaped thorns,

They have bstrained themselves 1to no profit.

But be ashamed of your 2charvest

Because of the dfierce anger of the Lord.”

14 Thus says the Lord concerning all My awicked neighbors who bstrike at the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel, “Behold I am about to uproot them from their land and will cuproot the house of Judah from among them.

15 “And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will aagain have compassion on them; and I will bbring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.

16 “Then if they will really alearn the ways of My people, to bswear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ even as they taught My people to cswear by Baal, they will be dbuilt up in the midst of My people.

17 “But if they will not listen, then I will auproot that nation, uproot and destroy it,” declares the Lord.