Jeremiah 12:5-13

Common English Bible

⁵If you have raced with people and are worn out,
    how will you compete with horses?
If you fall down in an open field,^[a]
    how will you survive in the forest along the Jordan?
⁶Even your relatives, your very family,
    are planning to trap you.
        They are out to get you.
    So don’t trust them,
        even if they appear to be on your side.

God’s lament over Judah’s destruction

⁷I have abandoned my house;
    I have deserted my inheritance.
    I have given the one I love
        into the power of her enemies.
⁸My inheritance has turned against me
    like a lion in the forest;
        she growls at me;
            therefore, I have rejected her.
⁹My inheritance has become
    like a bird of prey,
        surrounded and attacked.^[b]
Go, gather all the wild animals for the feast.
¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
    they have trampled down my field;
    they have reduced my treasured field
        to a desolate wilderness.
¹¹They have devastated her;
    desolate, she cries out to me in distress:
        “The whole land is desolate,
        and no one seems to care.”
¹²Over all the desert roads
    destroyers march;
        for the sword of the Lord devours
    from one end of the land to the other;
        no one is safe.
¹³They have sown wheat and reaped weeds;
    they have worn themselves out for nothing.
They will be ashamed of their^[c] harvest
    on account of the Lord’s fierce anger.