JeremiahChapter 12

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹LORD, you are righteous
when I bring my case to you.
Yet I want to talk with you about your judgments.
Why do wicked people do so well?
Why do all the unfaithful live such easy lives? ²You planted them, and they have put down roots.
They grow and produce fruit.
You are always on their lips,
but you are far from their hearts. ³But you know me, LORD.
You see me and test my heart toward you.
Drag the wicked away like sheep to be killed.
Set them apart for the day of slaughter. ⁴How long will the land mourn?
How long will the grass in every field be dried up?
Because the people who live there are evil,
the animals and birds have been swept away.
For the people have said,
"He cannot see what will happen to us." ⁵"If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you race against horses?
If you trip in a peaceful land,
what will you do in the thick bushes by the Jordan? ⁶Even your brothers, your own father's family,
even they have turned against you.
They have shouted loudly against you.
Do not trust them,
even when they say nice things to you. ⁷I have forsaken my house.
I have walked away from the people who belong to me.
I have handed the one I love most
over to her enemies. ⁸My own people have become to me
like a lion in the forest.
She has roared at me,
so I hate her. ⁹Haven't my own people become to me
like a spotted bird of prey,
with other birds of prey circling to attack her?
Go, gather all the wild animals.
Bring them to eat her up. ¹⁰Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard.
They have trampled my piece of land.
They have turned my lovely field
into an empty wasteland. ¹¹They have made it a wasteland.
Ruined, it mourns in front of me.
The whole land is ruined,
but no one cares about it. ¹²Destroyers have come
over all the bare hilltops in the wilderness.
For the sword of the LORD destroys
from one end of the land to the other.
No one has any peace. ¹³They planted wheat but harvested thorns.
They wore themselves out for nothing.
Be ashamed of your harvest
because of the LORD's fierce anger." ¹⁴This is what the LORD says: "My evil neighbors attack the land I gave my people Israel to own. I am about to pull them up from their land. And I will pull up the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵But after I pull them up, I will again show them mercy. I will bring each one back to his own property and his own land. ¹⁶They once taught my people to make promises by Baal. But if they will carefully learn the ways of my people, and make promises by my name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives,' then they will be built up among my people. ¹⁷But if any nation will not obey, I will pull it up. I will pull it up and destroy it," declares the LORD.