Jeremiah 12:5-17

The Lord’s Reply

5 "If you run with foot soldiers and they have made you weary, then how will you compete with horses? If you have fallen in {a peaceful land}, then how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
6 For even your relatives, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you, even they call {loudly} after you. You must not trust in them, though they speak kindly to you.
7 I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance. I have given the beloved one of my {heart} into the hand of her enemies.
8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up against me her voice; {therefore} I hate her.
9 The lair of [the] hyena [is] my inheritance to me, the birds of prey [are] all around her. Go, gather all of the animals of the field, bring [them] {to come and devour}.
10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my plot of land. They have made {my pleasant field} like the desert of desolation.
11 They have made it a desolation. Desolate, it mourns to me. All the land is made desolate, but there is no person taking [it] to heart.
12 Upon all [the] barren heights in the desert destroyers have come, for [the] sword of Yahweh devours, from [one] end of [the] land to the [other] end of the land, there is no peace for all flesh.
13 They have sown wheat and they have reaped thorns. They are exhausted, they do not profit. And they will be ashamed of your produce, because of {the burning anger} of Yahweh."
14 Thus says Yahweh concerning all of the evil neighbors who touch the inheritance that I gave as an inheritance [to] my people Israel: "Look, I [am] about to drive them out from their land, and the house of Judah I will drive out from among them.
15 {And then} after my driving them out, I will once again have compassion on them, and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance, and each one to his land.
16 {And then}, if they diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, '{as Yahweh lives},' even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will live in the midst of my people.
17 But if they do not listen, then {I will completely uproot and destroy that nation}." {declares} Yahweh.

Footnotes 16

  • [a]. Literally "a land of peace"
  • [b]. Literally "full"
  • [c]. Literally "soul"
  • [d]. Literally "unto thus"
  • [e]. Hebrew "bird of prey"
  • [f]. Hebrew "animal"
  • [g]. Literally "to food"
  • [h]. Literally "the plot of land of my desire"
  • [i]. Or "wilderness"
  • [j]. Or "wilderness"
  • [k]. Literally "the blaze of the nose"
  • [l]. Literally "And it will happen"
  • [m]. Literally "And it will happen"
  • [n]. Literally "the life of Yahweh"
  • [o]. Literally "I will drive out the nation that driving out and destroying"
  • [p]. Literally "declaration of"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.