Jeremiah

You will win,awin Lit. “be in the right.” O ETERNAL One, if I make claim against You,Yet I shall present charges against You:Why does the way of the wicked prosper?Why are the workers of treachery at ease?

You have planted them, and they have taken root,They spread, they even bear fruit.You are present in their mouths,But far from their thoughts.

Yet You, ETERNAL One, have noted and observed me;You have tested my heart, and found it with You.Drive them out like sheep to the slaughter,Prepare them for the day of slaying!

How long must the land languish,And the grass of all the countryside dry up?Must beasts and birds perish,Because of the evil of its inhabitants,Who say, “[God] will not look upon our future”?bfuture Septuagint reads “ways.”

cGod here replies to Jeremiah’s plea in vv. 1–3. If you race with the foot-runners and they exhaust you,How then can you compete with horses?If you are secure onlydsecure only Some Septuagint mss. read “not secure.” in a tranquil land,How will you fare in the jungle of the Jordan?

For even your own kin and your father’s house—Even they are treacherous toward you;They cry after you as a mob.Do not believe themWhen they speak cordially to you.

I have abandoned My House,I have deserted My possession,I have given over My dearly belovedInto the hands of her enemies.

My own peopleepeople Lit. “possession”; the land as well as the people, as is clear in v. 14. acted toward MeLike a lion in the forest;She raised her voice against Me—Therefore I have rejected her.

My own people acts toward MeLike a bird of prey [or] a hyena;Let the birds of prey surround her!fMy own people … surround her Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Go, gather all the wild beasts,Bring them to devour!

Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard,Have trampled My field,Have made My delightful fieldA desolate wilderness.

They havegThey have Heb. “He has.” made her a desolation;Desolate, she pours out grief to Me.The whole land is laid desolate,But nobody gives it thought.

Spoilers have comeUpon all the bare heights of the wilderness.For a sword of GOD devoursFrom one end of the land to the other;No flesh is safe.

They have sown wheat and reaped thorns,They have endured pain to no avail.Be shamed, then, by your harvest—By GOD’s blazing wrath!

Thus said GOD: As for My wicked neighbors who encroach on the heritage that I gave to My people Israel—I am going to uproot them from their soil, and I will uproot the House of Judah out of the midst of them.

Then, after I have uprooted them, I will take them back into favor, and restore them all to their own inheritance and their own land.

And if they learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name—“As GOD lives”—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst ofhbuilt up in the midst of Or “incorporated into.” My people.

But if they do not give heed, I will tear out that nation, tear it out and destroy it—declares GOD.