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Jeremiah 12

¹You come out justified, YHWH, when I make a case against you, yet I will present my causes to you.
Why do the wicked prosper,
and treacherous people live in peace?
²You planted them and they become well rooted.
They grow and bear fruit.
They are always talking about you,
But they are never thinking about you.
³But you, YHWH, know me. You see me!
You test my heart’s devotion to you.
Lure them away like sheep to the slaughter.
Set them apart for a day of killing!
⁴How long must the land mourn,
And the grass in every field be withered?
Because its people are so wicked,
The animals and birds have been finished off.
Because they said, “God doesn’t see where we’re going.”
⁵If you have run with the footmen,
And they have worn you out,
How can you compete with the horses?
If you’re in safe country, and you fall down,
What will you do in the rough country by the Jordan River?
⁶For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; even they have cried aloud after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee. ⁷I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. ⁸My heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest: she hath uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her. ⁹Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of prey against her round about? go ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour. ¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. ¹¹They have made it a desolation; it mourneth unto me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. ¹²Destroyers are come upon all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of YHWH devoureth from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh hath peace. ¹³They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and ye shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of Jehovah. ¹⁴Thus saith YHWH against all mine evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. ¹⁶And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As YHWH liveth; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people. ¹⁷But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, saith Jehovah.

Average revision: 3 (Draft # 1 by individual translator)