Jeremiah 12:5-13

International Children’s Bible

God’s Answer to Jeremiah

⁵“If you get tired racing against men,
    how can you race against horses?
You stumble in a country that is safe.
    What will you do in the thick thornbushes along the Jordan River?
⁶These men are your own brothers.
    Members of your own family are making plans against you.
    People from your own family are crying out against you.
Don’t trust them,
    even when they speak to you like friends!

⁷“I have left Israel.
    I have left my people.
I have given the people I love
    to their enemies.
⁸My people have become
    like a lion in the forest to me.
They roar at me.
    So I hate them.
⁹My people have become to me
    like a speckled bird attacked by hawks.
Go, gather the wild animals!
    Bring them to get something to eat.
¹⁰Many shepherds will ruin my vineyards.
    They will walk on the plants in my field.
They will turn my beautiful field
    into an empty desert.
¹¹They will turn my field into a desert.
    It will be wilted and dead.
The whole country is an empty desert.
    This is because no one who lives there cares.
¹²Many soldiers will march over those barren hills.
    The Lord will use the armies to punish that land.
People from one end of the land to the other will be punished.
    No one will be safe.
¹³The people will plant wheat.
    But they will harvest only thorns.
They will work hard until they are very tired.
    But they will get nothing for all their work.
You will be ashamed of your poor harvest.
    The Lord’s terrible anger has caused this.”