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/Chapter 12
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Jeremiah

ESV

Chapter 12

1Righteous are you, O LORD, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all faithless people flourish? 2You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit; you are always on their lips but far from their hearts. 3But you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter. 4How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? Because of the evil of its inhabitants, the beasts and the birds have perished, because people said, “He will not see our latter end.” 5“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so confident, how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan? 6For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; do not believe them, though they speak friendly words to you.” 7“I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies. 8My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest; she has lifted up her voice against me; therefore I hate her. 9Is my heritage to me like a speckled bird of prey? Are birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the wild beasts; bring them to devour her. 10Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled down my portion; they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. 11They have made it a desolation; it mourns to me, a desolation; the whole land is made desolate, but no one lays it to heart. 12Upon all the bare heights in the wilderness destroyers have come, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the land to the other; no flesh has peace. 13They have sown wheat and reaped thorns; they have toiled and have gained nothing. Be ashamed of your harvests because of the fierce anger of the LORD.” 14Thus says the LORD concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: “Behold, I will uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. 15And after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land. 16And if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people. 17But if they will not listen, then I will uproot that nation, uproot and destroy it, declares the LORD.”