Jeremiah 12
12
Jeremiah Questions the Lord’s Justice
1 Lord, 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?
2You have planted them,
and they have taken root and prospered.
Your name is on their lips,
but you are far from their hearts.
3But 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!
4How 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!”
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?
6Even 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.
7“I have abandoned my people, my special possession.
I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.
8My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest,
so I have treated them with contempt.
9My chosen people act like speckled vultures,#12:9 Or speckled hyenas.
but they themselves are surrounded by vultures.
Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean!
10“Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard,
trampling down the vines
and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness.
11They have made it an empty wasteland;
I hear its mournful cry.
The whole land is desolate,
and no one even cares.
12On 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!
13My 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.”
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. 15But 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. 16And 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. 17But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
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Jeremiah 12: NLT
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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Yirmeyah 12
12
1Tzaddik art Thou, Hashem, when I make legal pleading of my case before Thee; yet mishpatim (justice) I would speak with Thee: Why doth the Derech Resha'im prosper? Why live they all at ease whose dealings are that of the boged (traitor, treacherous)?
2Thou hast planted them, and they take root; they grow, and they bring forth pri; Thou art karov (near) in their mouth, and rachok (far) from their heart.
3But Thou, Hashem, knowest me; Thou hast seen me, and tested mine lev toward Thee; pull them out like tzon for the tevakh (slaughter), and prepare them for the Yom Haregah (Day of Slaughter, Killing).
4Ad mosai (until when) shall HaAretz mourn, and the esev kol hasadeh (grass of every field) wither, because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The behemot are consumed, and the oph; because they said, He#12:4 G-d is blind to our future.
5If thou hast run with the ragelim (footmen), and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with susim? And if in the eretz shalom thou art complacent, then how wilt thou do in the thickets of the Yarden?
6For even acheicha (thy brethren), and the bais avicha, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; even they are in full cry behind thee; trust them not, though they speak unto thee tovot.
7I have forsaken Mine Bais, I have abandoned Mine nachalah; I have given the yedidut nafshi (the beloved of My soul) into the palm of her enemies.
8Mine nachalah is unto Me as an aryeh in the ya'ar (forest); it roareth out against Me; therefore have I hated it.
9Mine nachalah is unto Me as a speckled bird of prey, the birds of prey round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the chayyat hasadeh (beasts of the field), come to devour.
10Ro'im rabbim (many shepherds) have destroyed My kerem (vineyard), they have trodden My chelek under foot, they have made My chelet chemdat (portion desired) a desolate midbar.
11They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto Me; kol HaAretz is made desolate, but no ish taketh it to heart.
12The plunderers are come upon all barren heights in the midbar; for the Cherev Hashem shall devour from the one end of the Eretz even to the other end of HaAretz; no basar shall have shalom.
13They have sown chittim (wheat), but shall reap kotzim (thorns); they have tired themselves out, but shall not profit; and they shall be ashamed of your harvests because of the Charon Af Hashem (burning furious wrath of Hashem).
14Thus saith Hashem: Concerning all Mine evil shchenim (neighbors), that touch the nachalah which I have caused My people Yisroel to inherit: See, I will uproot them out of their adamah, and uproot the Bais Yehudah from among them.
15And it shall come to pass, after that I uproot them I will return, and have rachamim (compassion) on them, and will bring them back again, every ish to his nachalah, and every ish to his eretz.
16And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the darkhei Ami (ways of My people ),#12:16 i.e., Israelʼs Biblical faith to swear in My Shem, As Hashem liveth; even as they taught My people to make avowal in Ba'al; then shall they be built up in the midst of My People.
17But if they will not obey, I will utterly uproot and destroy that Goy (Nation), saith Hashem.
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.