Jérémie 12
1 Éternel! tu es juste quand je conteste avec toi; toutefois je parlerai avec toi de [tes] jugements. Pourquoi la voie des méchants est-elle prospère? [Pourquoi] ceux qui agissent très perfidement sont-ils en paix?
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 Tu les as plantés, même ils prennent racine; ils progressent, même ils portent du fruit. Tu es près, dans leur bouche, mais tu es loin de leurs reins.
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 Mais toi, Éternel! tu me connais, tu m’as vu, et tu as éprouvé mon cœur à ton égard. Traîne-les comme des brebis à la tuerie, et mets-les à part pour le jour de la tuerie.
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 Jusques à quand le pays mènera-t-il deuil et l’herbe de tous les champs séchera-t-elle? À cause de l’iniquité de ceux qui y habitent, le bétail et les oiseaux périssent; car ils disent: Il ne verra pas notre fin.
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 Si tu as couru avec les piétons, et qu’ils t’aient lassé, comment rivaliseras-tu avec les chevaux? Et si, dans une terre de paix, tu te crois en sécurité, que feras-tu quand le Jourdain sera enflé?
[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 Car tes frères aussi et la maison de ton père, eux aussi ont agi perfidement envers toi, eux aussi ont crié après toi à plein gosier. Ne les crois point, même s’ils te disent de bonnes [paroles].
[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 J’ai abandonné ma maison, j’ai délaissé mon héritage, j’ai livré le bien-aimé de mon âme en la main de ses ennemis.
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 Mon héritage m’est devenu comme un lion dans la forêt; il a fait retentir sa voix contre moi, c’est pourquoi je l’ai haï.
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 Mon héritage m’est comme un oiseau de proie tacheté; les oiseaux de proie sont contre lui, tout à l’entour. Venez, assemblez toutes les bêtes des champs, faites-les venir pour dévorer.
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 Plusieurs pasteurs ont gâté ma vigne, ils ont foulé mon lot, ils ont réduit le lot de mon désir en un désert aride;
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 on en a fait une désolation; tout désolé, il mène deuil devant moi; toute la terre est dévastée, car personne ne la prend à cœur.
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 Sur toutes les hauteurs dans le désert sont venus les destructeurs; car l’épée de l’Éternel dévore depuis un bout du pays jusqu’à l’autre bout du pays: il n’y a de paix pour aucune chair.
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 Ils ont semé du froment, et ils moissonnent des épines; ils se sont tourmentés, [et] ils n’en ont pas eu de profit: soyez confus du rapport de vos [champs], à cause de l’ardeur de la colère de l’Éternel.
[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 Ainsi dit l’Éternel contre tous mes mauvais voisins qui mettent la main sur l’héritage que j’ai fait hériter à mon peuple, à Israël: Voici, je les arracherai de dessus leur sol, et j’arracherai la maison de Juda du milieu d’eux.
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 Et il arrivera qu’après que je les aurai arrachés, je leur ferai de nouveau miséricorde et je les ferai retourner chacun à son héritage et chacun dans son pays.
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 Et il arrivera que, s’ils apprennent diligemment les voies de mon peuple, pour jurer par mon nom: L’Éternel est vivant! comme ils ont enseigné à mon peuple à jurer par Baal, ils seront édifiés au milieu de mon peuple.
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 Et s’ils n’écoutent pas, j’arracherai entièrement cette nation-là et je la ferai périr, dit l’Éternel.
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.”
