Jeremías 12

1 Justo eres Tú, oh Yavé, para que yo contienda contigo. Sin embargo, defenderé mi causa ante Ti: ¿Por qué prospera el camino de los perversos, y los traidores viven en paz?

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 Los plantas y echan raíces. Crecen y dan fruto. Cercano estás de sus bocas, pero lejos de su pensamiento.

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 Pero Tú, oh Yavé, Tú me conoces. Me miras y pruebas mi corazón, cómo es hacia Ti. Sepáralos como a ovejas para el matadero. Apártalos para el día de la matanza.

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 ¿Hasta cuándo lamenta la tierra y se marchita la hierba de todo el campo? Por la perversidad de los que la habitan perecieron los animales y las aves. Porque dicen: Él no verá nuestro último 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 [Respuesta de] Yavé: Si te cansaste al correr con la infantería, ¿cómo puedes competir con la caballería? Si caes en una tierra de paz, entonces ¿qué harás en la selva del Jordán?

[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 Porque aun tus hermanos y la casa de tu padre te traicionaron. Aun ellos gritan con voz fuerte detrás de ti. No les creas aunque te digan cosas agradables.

[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 Abandoné mi casa. Desamparé mi heredad. Entregué en manos de mis enemigos lo que mi alma ama.

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 Porque mi heredad fue para mí como león en la selva. Dio su rugido contra mí. Por tanto la aborrecí.

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 ¿Mi heredad es para mí como un ave de rapiña de muchos colores? ¿No hay aves de rapiña contra ella y alrededor de ella? Vengan, reúnanse todas las fieras del campo. Vengan a tragarla.

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 Muchos pastores destruyeron mi viña. Pisotearon mi heredad. Convirtieron mi agradable heredad en un desierto desolado.

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 La convirtieron en una desolación, y llora sobre mí desolada. Toda la tierra está desolada porque no reflexiona algún hombre.

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 Llegaron los destructores sobre todas las alturas del desierto, porque la espada de Yavé devora, desde un extremo de la tierra hasta el otro. Para nadie hay paz.

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 Sembraron trigo y cosecharon espinas. Tuvieron la posesión, pero nada les aprovechó. Son avergonzados en sus cosechas a causa del ardor de la ira de Yavé.

[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 Con respecto a todos mis perversos vecinos que atacan la heredad con la cual doté a mi pueblo Israel, Yavé dice: Ciertamente los arrancaré de su tierra. Arrancaré a la Casa de Judá de en medio de ellos.

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 Pero después que los arranque, volveré a tener compasión de ellos. Los devolveré cada uno a su heredad y cada cual a su tierra.

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 Sucederá que si en verdad quieren aprender los caminos de mi pueblo para invocar mi Nombre y decir: Vive Yavé, así como enseñaron a mi pueblo a jurar por baal, ellos serán establecidos en medio de mi pueblo.

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 Pero si no escuchan, arrancaré a esa nación. La sacaré de raíz y la destruiré, dice Yavé.

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.”