Jeremiah’s Plea
aRighteous are You, O Yahweh, when I would plead my case with You;
Indeed I would bspeak matters of justice with You:
Why has the cway of the wicked succeeded?
Why are all those who ddeal in treachery complacent?
2 You have aplanted them; they have also taken root;
They grow; they have even produced fruit.
You are bnear to their lips
But far from their inmost being.
3 But You, O Yahweh, You aknow me;
You see me;
And You btest my heart’s attitude toward You.
Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter
And set them apart for a cday of carnage!
4 How long is the aland to mourn
And the bplants of every field to dry up?
Because of the cevil of those who inhabit it,
dAnimals and birds have been swept away,
Because men have said, “He will not see our latter eending.”
Yahweh Answers Jeremiah
5 “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out,
Then how can you compete with horses?
If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the athicket of the Jordan?
6 For even your abrothers and the household of your father,
Even they have dealt treacherously with you,
Even they have called aloud after you.
Do not believe them, although they may say bnice things to you.”
7 “I have aforsaken My house;
I have abandoned My inheritance;
I have given the bbeloved of My soul
Into the hand of her enemies.
8 My inheritance has become to Me
Like a lion in the forest;
She has agiven forth its voice against Me;
Therefore I have come to bhate her.
9 Is My inheritance like a speckled bird of prey to Me?
Are the abirds of prey against her on every side?
Go, gather all the bbeasts of the field,
Bring them to devour!
10 Many ashepherds have ruined My bvineyard;
They have ctrampled down My portion;
They have made My ddesired portion
A desolate wilderness.
11 It has been made a desolation;
Desolate, it amourns before Me;
The bwhole land has been made desolate
Because no man csets it upon his heart.
12 On all the abare heights in the wilderness
Destroyers have come,
For a bsword of Yahweh is devouring
From one end of the land even to the other;
There is cno peace for any flesh.
13 They have asown wheat and have reaped thorns;
They have bstrained themselves to no profit.
But be ashamed of your cproduce
Because of the dburning anger of Yahweh.”
14 Thus says Yahweh concerning all My aevil neighbors who bbeat at the inheritance with which I have caused My people Israel to inherit, “Behold, I am about to uproot them from their land and will cuproot the house of Judah from among them. 15 And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will areturn and have compassion on them; and I will bcause them to return, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land. 16 Then if they will really alearn the ways of My people, to bswear by My name, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ even as they taught My people to cswear by Baal, they will be dbuilt up in the midst of My people. 17 But if they will not listen, then I will auproot that nation, uproot and make it perish,” declares Yahweh.