12Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?H6662H3068H7378H1696H4941H1870H7563H6743H7951H899H8982You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts.H5193H8327H3212H6213H6529H7138H6310H7350H36293But as for me, Lord, you know my heart. You see me and test my thoughts. Drag these people away like sheep to be butchered! Set them aside to be slaughtered!H3068H3045H7200H974H3820H5423H6629H2878H6942H3117H20284How long must this land mourn? Even the grass in the fields has withered. The wild animals and birds have disappeared because of the evil in the land. For the people have said, “The Lord doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!”H776H56H6212H7704H3001H7451H3427H929H5595H5775H559H7200H319
The Lord’s Reply to Jeremiah
5“If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?H7323H7273H3811H8474H5483H776H7965H982H6213H1347H33836Even your brothers, members of your own family, have turned against you. They plot and raise complaints against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak.H251H1004H1H898H7121H4392H310H539H1696H28967“I have abandoned my people, my special possession. I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.H5800H1004H5203H5159H5414H3033H5315H3709H3418My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them with contempt.H5159H738H3293H5414H6963H81309My chosen people act like speckled vultures, but they themselves are surrounded by vultures. Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean!H5159H6641H5861H5861H5439H3212H622H2416H7704H857H40210“Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness.H7227H7462H7843H3754H947H2513H947H5414H2532H2513H8077H405711They have made it an empty wasteland; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate, and no one even cares.H7760H8076H8077H56H776H8074H376H7760H382012On all the bare hilltops, destroying armies can be seen. The sword of the Lord devours people from one end of the nation to the other. No one will escape!H7703H935H8205H4057H2719H3068H398H7097H776H7097H776H1320H796513My people have planted wheat but are harvesting thorns. They have worn themselves out, but it has done them no good. They will harvest a crop of shame because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”H2232H2406H7114H6975H2470H3276H954H8393H2740H639H3068
A Message for Israel’s Neighbors
14Now this is what the Lord says: “I will uproot from their land all the evil nations reaching out for the possession I gave my people Israel. And I will uproot Judah from among them.H559H3068H7451H7934H5060H5159H5971H3478H5157H5428H127H5428H1004H3063H843215But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of them. I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own possession.H310H5428H7725H7355H7725H376H5159H376H77616And if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’ (just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal), then they will be given a place among my people.H3925H3925H1870H5971H7650H8034H3068H2416H3925H5971H7650H1168H1129H8432H597117But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken!”H8085H5428H5428H6H1471H5002H3068
, but they themselves are surrounded by vultures. Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean!H5159
