Jeremiah 12

1. Righteous are You, O LORD, that I might plead with You; yet let me speak with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all they happy who deal treacherously?

2. You have planted them; yea, they take root. They grow, yea, they bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth and far from their reins.

3. But You, O LORD, know me. You have seen me and tried my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and devote them for the day of slaughter.

4. How long shall the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither from the evil of those who dwell in it? The beasts and the birds have been destroyed because they said, “He shall not see our final end.”

5. “If you have run with footmen, and they wore you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if you feel secure in the land of peace, how then will you do in the thick brush of the Jordan?

6. For even your brethren and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. Yea, they have called aloud against you. Do not believe them, even if they speak good things to you.

7. I have forsaken My house; I have left My inheritance. I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.

8. My inheritance is to Me as a lion in the forest; she cries out against Me; therefore I have hated her.

9. My inheritance is like a speckled bird to Me; the birds all around are against her. Go, gather all the beasts 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 high places through the wilderness; for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land. No flesh shall have peace.

13. They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns. They wear themselves out, but they do not profit. And they shall be ashamed of their harvests because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

14. Thus says the LORD, “Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit—behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

15.And it shall come to pass after I have plucked them out, I will return and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, each man to his inheritance and each man to his land.

16. And it shall come to pass if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives;’ as they taught the people to swear by Baal; then they shall be built in the midst of My people.

17. But if they will not obey, I will utterly uproot and destroy that nation,” says the LORD.