耶利米書 12
1 上主，幾時我與你爭論，總是你有理；但我仍願與你討論正義：「為什麼惡人的生活總是順利，一般詭詐極惡的人總享安寧﹖
You are righteous, Yahweh, whenever I bring disputes to you. I must certainly tell you of my reason to complain: Why do the ways of the wicked succeed? All the faithless people are successful.
2 你栽植了他們，他們就生長根滋長，結出果實；他們的口離你近，他們的心卻離你遠。
You planted them and they took root. They continue to produce fruit. You are near to them in their mouths, but far away from their hearts.
3 至於你，上主，你是認識我的，你考察了我對你的心意；求你把他們像待宰的羔羊一樣拉出來，留待宰殺的一天。
Yet you, Yahweh, know me. You see me and you test my heart toward you. Take them away like sheep to the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter!
4 [這地要哀傷，整個田野的草木要枯萎到幾時﹖由於居民的邪惡，野獸和飛鳥都被消滅。] 因為他們說：「天主不管我們的作為。」
How long will the land go on drying up, and the plants in every field wither because of the wickedness of its inhabitants? The animals and the birds have been taken away. Indeed, the people say, “God will not see what happens to us.”
5 「你與人徒步競走，尚覺疲乏，你怎麼能與馬角逐﹖在平安的地區尚覺不安，在約旦河的叢林區，你更將何如﹖
Yahweh said, “Indeed, if you, Jeremiah, have run with foot soldiers and they have tired you out, how can you compete against horses? If you fall down in the safe countryside, how will you do in the thickets along the Jordan?
6 連你的兄弟和你的父族對你都無誠意，在你後面厲聲喊叫；即便他們對說好話，你也不要相信。」
For even your brothers and your father's family have betrayed you and have loudly denounced you. Do not trust in them, even if they say nice things to you.
7 「 離開了我的家，拋棄了我的產業，將我最心愛的人交在敵人的手中。
I have abandoned my house; I have forsaken my inheritance. I have given my beloved into the hands of her enemies.
8 我的產業對我竟好像是森林中的獅子，向我咆哮，為我憎恨他它。
My inheritance has become to me like a lion in a thicket; she sets herself against me with her own voice, so I hate her.
9 我的產業對我竟成了一隻帶斑點的鷙鳥，以致鷙鳥圍著向它襲擊。你們去田黟的一切野獸，叫它們來吞噬。
Has not my prized possession become a speckled bird, that other birds of prey go against her all around? Go and gather all the wild beasts and bring them to devour her.
10 許多牧童毀壞了我的葡萄園，蹂躝了我的產業，使我喜愛的產業變為荒蕪的曠野。
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have stomped all over my portion of land; they turned my delightful portion into a wilderness, a desolation.
11 他們使它荒涼，荒涼得在我面前哀傷；全地荒涼，因為沒有一人關心。
They have made her a desolation. I mourn for her; she is desolate. All the land has been made desolate, for there is no one who takes it to heart.
12 破壞者已來到曠野的一切高崗上，因為上主的刀劍正在砍伐，從地極到地極，凡有血肉的，都不得安寧。
Destroyers have come against all the bare places in the wilderness, for Yahweh's sword is devouring from one end of the land to the other. There is no safety in the land for any living creature.
13 他們播種了麥子，卻收割了荊棘；雖筋疲力竭，卻沒有利益；由於上主的憤怒，都因自己的收穫而害羞。
They have sown wheat but harvest thornbushes. They are exhausted from work but have gained nothing. So be ashamed of your gain because of Yahweh's anger.”
14 上主這樣說：關於那些險惡的鄰邦．即侵犯我給予我民以色列佔有的產業的鄰邦，看，我要由他們的地上將他們拔除，也要由他們中拔除猶大家。
Yahweh says this against all my neighbors, the wicked ones who strike at the possession that I made my people Israel inherit, “See, I am the one who is about to uproot them from their own ground, and I will pull up the house of Judah from among them.
15 在我拔除他們以後，我要再憐憫他們，引他們復歸自己的產業，各回自己的故鄉。
Then after I uproot those nations, it will happen that I will have compassion on them and bring them back; I will return them—each man to his inheritance and his land.
16 設若他們殷勤學走我人民的道路，奉我名發誓說：「上主永在」，如同他們昔日教我人民奉巴耳發誓一樣，他們就可在我的人民中再度復興。
It will come about that if those nations carefully learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name 'As Yahweh lives' just as they have taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.
17 倘若他們不聽從，我必拔除這民族，將他們拔除消滅──上主的斷語。
But if any do not listen, then I will uproot that nation. It will certainly be uprooted and destroyed—this is Yahweh's declaration.”
