Jeremiæ 12
1 [Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum: verumtamen justa loquar ad te: Quare via impiorum prosperatur; bene est omnibus qui prævaricantur et inique agunt?
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 Plantasti eos, et radicem miserunt: proficiunt, et faciunt fructum: prope es tu ori eorum, et longe a renibus eorum.
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 Et tu, Domine, nosti me, vidisti me, et probasti cor meum tecum. Congrega eos quasi gregem ad victimam, et sanctifica eos in die occisionis.
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 Usquequo lugebit terra, et herba omnis regionis siccabitur, propter malitiam habitantium in ea? Consumptum est animal, et volucre, quoniam dixerunt: Non videbit novissima nostra.
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 cum peditibus currens laborasti, quomodo contendere poteris cum equis? cum autem in terra pacis securus fueris, quid facies in superbia Jordanis?
[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 Nam et fratres tui, et domus patris tui, etiam ipsi pugnaverunt adversum te, et clamaverunt post te plena voce: ne credas eis, cum locuti fuerint tibi bona.]
[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 [Reliqui domum meam; dimisi hæreditatem meam: dedi dilectam animam meam in manu inimicorum ejus.
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 Facta est mihi hæreditas mea quasi leo in silva: dedit contra me vocem, ideo odivi eam.
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 Numquid avis discolor hæreditas mea mihi? numquid avis tincta per totum? Venite, congregamini, omnes bestiæ terræ: properate ad devorandum.
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 Pastores multi demoliti sunt vineam meam, conculcaverunt partem meam, dederunt portionem meam desiderabilem in desertum solitudinis.
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 Posuerunt eam in dissipationem, luxitque super me: desolatione desolata est omnis terra, quia nullus est qui recogitet corde.
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 Super omnes vias deserti venerunt vastatores, quia gladius Domini devorabit: ab extremo terræ usque ad extremum ejus, non est pax universæ carni.
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 Seminaverunt triticum, et spinas messuerunt: hæreditatem acceperunt, et non eis proderit. Confundemini a fructibus vestris propter iram furoris Domini.
[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 Hæc dicit Dominus adversum omnes vicinos meos pessimos, qui tangunt hæreditatem quam distribui populo meo Israël: Ecce ego evellam eos de terra sua, et domum Juda evellam de medio eorum.
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 cum evulsero eos, convertar, et miserebor eorum, et reducam eos: virum ad hæreditatem suam, et virum in terram suam.
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 erit: si eruditi didicerint vias populi mei, ut jurent in nomine meo: Vivit Dominus! sicut docuerunt populum meum jurare in Baal, ædificabuntur in medio populi mei.
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 Quod si non audierint, evellam gentem illam evulsione et perditione, ait Dominus.]
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.”
