Jeremiah Chapter 12    

 ¹ You are righteous, Yahweh, when I bring a case against you,

 yet I would speak to you about your justice.

 Why does the road of the wicked prosper?

 Why are all those who deal very treacherously at ease?

 

 ² You have planted them,

 and they have taken root;

 they grow, they also bring forth fruit.

 You are near in their mouth

 but far from their heart.

 

 ³ But you know me, Yahweh, you see me,

 and test my heart, that it is toward you.

 Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter

 and set them apart for the day of slaughter.

 

 ⁴ How long will the land mourn

 and the vegetation of the whole country wither?

 Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it,

 the animals are consumed, and the birds;

 for they said,

 “He cannot see our latter end.”

 

 
⁵ “If you have run with the footmen

 and they have wearied you,

 then how can you compete against horses?

 And if you feel secure in a land of peace,

 yet how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

 

 ⁶ For even your brothers, and the house of your father,

 even they have dealt treacherously with you;

 even they have cried aloud after you.

 Do not believe them,

 though they say good things to you.”

 

 
⁷ “I have forsaken my house,^a

 I have cast off my heritage,

 I have given the dearly beloved of my soul

 into the hand of her enemies.

 

 ⁸ My heritage has become to me

 like a lion in the forest,

 she has uttered her voice against me;

 therefore I have hated her.

 

 ⁹ Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey?

 Are the birds of prey against her all around?

 Go, assemble all the animals of the field,

 bring them to devour.

 

 ¹⁰ Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard,

 they have trampled my portion under foot,

 they have made my pleasant portion

 a desolate wilderness.

 

 ¹¹ They have made it a desolation;

 it mourns to me, being desolate;

 the whole land is made desolate

 because no man lays it to heart.”

 

 ¹² Destroyers have come

 on all the bare heights in the wilderness,

 for the sword of Yahweh devours

 from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land:

 no flesh has peace.

 

 ¹³ They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;

 they have tired themselves out but profit nothing,

 and you will be ashamed of your harvests,

 because of the fierce anger of Yahweh.

 

¹⁴This is what Yahweh says against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance that I have caused my people Israel to inherit: “Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
  ¹⁵After that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage and every man to his land.
  ¹⁶It will happen that if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, saying, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.
  ¹⁷But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking it up and destroying it, says Yahweh.”