Jeremiah 12
1 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.
Yahweh, whenever I tell you that I am unhappy [about what is happening to me], you [always] act justly/fairly. So now allow me to ask about one more thing [that I do not understand]: Why are wicked people [often] very prosperous? Why do things go very well for dishonest/wicked people?
2 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.
You allow them to prosper like [MET] trees that grow tall and bear [a lot of] fruit. They [always] say [MTY] good things about you, but their hearts are [really] far from you.
3 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!
But Yahweh, as for me, you know what is in my inner being. You see what I [do] and you are able to know what I am thinking. So drag away those [wicked] people, like [people drag away] sheep that they are going to butcher. Set them aside like sheep that are about to be slaughtered!
4 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.”
This land is [RHQ] becoming very dry and even the grass is withering. The wild animals and the birds have [all] died because the people are [very] wicked. [All that has happened] because the people have said, “Yahweh does not know what we are doing (OR, what will happen to us)!”
5 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?
[Then to show me that I needed to be prepared to endure even greater difficulties, Yahweh said to me], [“It is as though] you have become exhausted from racing against men; so how will you be able to race against horses? If you [stumble and] fall when you are running on open/bare/smooth ground, what will happen to you when you are running through the thornbushes near the Jordan [River]?
6 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.
[Already] your brothers and [other members of] your own family oppose you. They (plot against/plan to do evil things to) you and they say bad things about you. So even if they say nice things about you, do not trust them!
7 I have abandoned my house; I have forsaken my inheritance. I have given my beloved into the hands of her enemies.
I have abandoned my [Israeli] people, the people whom I chose to belong to me. I have allowed their enemies to conquer the Israeli people, whom I love.
8 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.
My people have become to me like [SIM] a lion in the forest. [It is as though] they roar at me like a lion, so now I hate them.
9 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.
My chosen people have [RHQ] become like speckled hawks that are surrounded by vultures [waiting to eat their flesh after they are dead]. Tell all the wild animals to come and eat [the flesh of their corpses].
10 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.
Many rulers [from other countries have come with their armies and] devastated/destroyed my people [whom I care for like a farmer takes care of his] vineyard. They have caused my beautiful land to become a barren desert where no one lives.
11 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.
They have caused it to become completely empty; [it is as though] I hear the land crying sadly/mournfully. The whole land is desolate, and no one (worries about/pays any attention to) it.
12 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.
The soldiers [of our enemies] have marched across all the barren hilltops. But [I], Yahweh, am using those armies [MTY] to punish your land from one end to the other, and no one will escape.
13 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.”
[It is as though] my people planted wheat, but now they are harvesting thorns. They have become very tired [because of much hard work], but they have gained nothing [from all that work]. They will be very disappointed because their harvests [will be very small], [and that will happen] because [I], Yahweh, am extremely angry [with them].”
14 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.
This is [also] what Yahweh said to me: “[I will punish] the evil nearby nations that have been trying to take away the land that I gave to my Israeli people, and I will force them to leave their own land. But I will throw the people of Judah out of their land, also.
15 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.
But later I will act mercifully toward those nations again, and I will bring them back to their own lands again. Each [clan] will come back to its own land.
16 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.
And if the people [of the other nations whose armies have invaded Israel] learn the [religious] customs of my people, and if they learn that I [am listening] when they solemnly promise that they will do something good, like they taught my people to believe that [their god] Baal [was listening] when they made solemn promises, I will cause them to become prosperous, and they also will be my people.
17 But if any do not listen, then I will uproot that nation. It will certainly be uprooted and destroyed—this is Yahweh's declaration.”
But I will expel any nation whose people refuse to obey me, and I will destroy that nation and its people. [That will surely happen because I], Yahweh, have said it.”
