1You are always righteous, O LORD, when I plead with You; yet let me talk with You about Your justice. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do they that deal very treacherously always seem happy? 2You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips; but far from their heart. 3But You, O LORD, know me; You have seen me, and tried my heart toward You. Drag them off like sheep, and set them aside for their day of slaughter. 4How long must the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, and the animals and birds perish because of the wickedness of people who live there, who say “He does not see what is ahead for us!”

5(The LORD answered Jeremiah:) “If you have run with mere men, and they have worn you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if you stumble on cleared land of safety, then how will you do in the thickets by the flood-swollen Jordan? 6For even your brothers, members of your own family, have betrayed you; yes, they have raised a mob after you; do not trust them, even though they speak friendly words to you.

7“I have left My Temple, and abandoned My heritage (My people); I have given the dearly beloved of My soul (the nation of Israel, once dearly beloved) into the hand of her enemies. 8My heritage (Israel) has become like a lion in the forest to Me; it snarled at Me; therefore, I must treat her as if I hated her. 9My heritage is unto Me like a speckled bird; the other birds around attack her, inviting all the beasts of the field to come and eat her. 10Many shepherds (rulers and priests) have corrupted My vineyard, they have trampled it under foot, they have made My pleasant field into a barren wilderness. 11They have left it a wasteland, parched and desolate. I hear its mournful cry; the whole land is laid waste, because no one even cares. 12The spoilers cross the barren heights on their path to destroy. The sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land to the other; none shall escape. 13They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns; what they shall harvest shall be pain to themselves; and they shall bear the shame of their harvest, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

14Thus says the LORD against all of Israel’s evil neighbors, that reach out to seize the land which I have given to My people, Israel, for an inheritance, “I will uproot them out of their land, and uproot the people of Judah from among them. 15And after I have uprooted them (the Israelites), I will return, and have compassion on them (both the Israelites and their neighbors), and will bring them back again, every man to his heritage, and to his own land. 16And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, saying ‘As surely as the LORD lives’; as opposed to what they taught My people - to swear by Baal, then shall they be established among of My people. 17But if any nation will not obey, I will utterly uproot and destroy that nation”, says the LORD.