Jeremiah 12:5-13

New Century Version

The Lord’s Answer to Jeremiah

⁵“If you get tired while racing against people,
    how can you race against horses?
If you stumble in a country that is safe,
    what will you do in the thick thornbushes along the Jordan River?
⁶Even your own brothers and members of your own family
    are making plans against you.
    They are crying out against you.
Don’t trust them,
    even when they say nice things to you!

⁷“I have left Israel;
    I have left my people.
I have given the people I love
    over to their enemies.
⁸My people have become to me
    like a lion in the forest.
They roar at me,
    so I hate them.
⁹My people have become to me
    like a speckled bird attacked on all sides by hawks.
Go, gather the wild animals.
    Bring them to get something to eat.
¹⁰Many shepherds have ruined my vineyards
    and trampled the plants in my field.
They have turned my beautiful field
    into an empty desert.
¹¹They have turned my field into a desert
    that is wilted and dead.
The whole country is an empty desert,
    because no one who lives there cares.
¹²Many soldiers have marched over those barren hills.
    The Lord is using the armies to punish that land
from one end to the other.
    No one is safe.
¹³The people have planted wheat,
    but they have harvested only thorns.
They have worked hard until they were very tired,
    but they have nothing for all their work.
They are ashamed of their poor harvest,
    because the Lord’s terrible anger has caused this.”