Jeremiah 12

You are righteous, LORD, when I bring my case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who act treacherously live at ease? You planted them, and they have taken root;
they grow and bear fruit.
You are near in their mouths, but far from their inward parts. But you, LORD, know me;
you see me and test my heart toward you.
Drag them away like sheep for slaughter;
set them apart for the day of killing. How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither?
Because of the wickedness of those who live in it, animals and birds have perished, for they say, “He will not see our end.” “If you have raced with men on foot and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?
If you feel secure in a land of peace, how will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan? For even your brothers and your father’s household—even they have betrayed you;
even they have shouted after you at the top of their voices.
Do not believe them, though they speak kindly to you. I have forsaken my house;
I have abandoned my inheritance.
I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest;
she has raised her voice against me, so I have hated her. Is my inheritance to me a speckled bird of prey?
Are birds of prey all around her?
Go, gather all the wild animals;
bring them to devour her! Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard and trampled my plot;
they have made my delightful plot a desolate wilderness. It has been made a desolation;
desolate, it mourns before me.
The whole land is desolate, because no one takes it to heart. Destroyers have come upon all the bare heights in the wilderness, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the land to the other;
no flesh has peace. They have sown wheat and reaped thorns;
they have exhausted themselves without gain.
Be ashamed of your harvests because of the fierce anger of the LORD.” This is what the LORD says: “Concerning all my evil neighbors who encroach on the inheritance I gave my people Israel, look, I am uprooting them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. After I uproot them, I will again have compassion on them and bring them back, each to his inheritance and each to his land. And if they truly learn the ways of my people, swearing by my name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up among my people. But if they do not listen, I will uproot that nation, utterly uproot and destroy it,” declares the LORD.

Rights and attribution