Jeremiah 12  Revised Geneva Translation

12 O LORD, if I dispute with You, You are righteous. Yet, let me talk with You of judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those wealthy who rebelliously transgress?

² You have planted them, and they have taken root. They grow and bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their core.

³ But You, LORD, know me. You have seen me and tried my heart toward You. Pull them out, like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

⁴ How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of those who dwell in them? The beasts are consumed, and the birds, because they said, “He will not see our last end.”

⁵ “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you match yourself with horses? And if you thought yourself safe in a peaceable land, what will you do in the swelling of Jordan?

⁶ “For even your brethren and the House of your father, even they have dealt unfaithfully with you. And they have cried out altogether upon you. Do not believe them, though they speak good things to you.

⁷ “I have forsaken My House. I have left My heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of My Soul into the hands of her enemies.

⁸ “My heritage is to Me as a lion in the forest. It cries out against Me. Therefore, I have hated it.

⁹ “Shall My heritage be to Me as a bird of diverse colors? Are not the birds around her saying, ‘Come, assemble all the beasts of the field. Come to eat her’?

¹⁰ “Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard and trampled My portion under foot. They have made a desolate wilderness of My pleasant portion.

¹¹ “They have laid it waste. And it, being waste, mourns to Me. The whole land lies waste because no man sets his mind on it.

¹² “The destroyers have come upon all the high places in the wilderness. For the sword of the LORD shall devour. From one end of the land to the other end of the land, no flesh shall have peace.

¹³ “They have sown wheat and reaped thorns. They were sick and had no profit. And they were ashamed of your fruits because of the fierce wrath of the LORD.”

¹⁴ Thus says the LORD: “Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit, behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the House of Judah from among them.

¹⁵ “And after I have plucked them out, I will return and have compassion on them, and will bring back every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

¹⁶ “And if they will learn the ways of My people, to swear by My Name, ‘The LORD lives’ (as they taught My people to swear by Baal), then they shall be built in the midst of My people.

¹⁷ “But if they will not obey, then will I utterly pluck up and destroy that nation,” says the LORD.