| NET Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1LORD, you have always been fair whenever I have complained to you. However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. Why are wicked people successful? Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives? | 1LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy? |
| 2You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you. | 2You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts. |
| 3But you, LORD, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered! Appoint a time when they will be killed! | 3But as for me, LORD, you know my heart. You see me and test my thoughts. Drag these people away like sheep to be butchered! Set them aside to be slaughtered! |
| 4How long must the land be parched and the grass in every field be withered? How long must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? For these people boast, "God will not see what happens to us." | 4How long must this land mourn? Even the grass in the fields has withered. The wild animals and birds have disappeared because of the evil in the land. For the people have said, “The LORD doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!” The LORD’s Reply to Jeremiah |
| 5The LORD answered, "If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out, how will you be able to compete with horses? And if you feel secure only in safe and open country, how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River? | 5“If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan? |
| 6As a matter of fact, even your own brothers and the members of your own family have betrayed you too. Even they have plotted to do away with you. So do not trust them even when they say kind things to you. | 6Even your brothers, members of your own family, have turned against you. They plot and raise complaints against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak. |
| 7"I will abandon my nation. I will forsake the people I call my own. I will turn my beloved people over to the power of their enemies. | 7“I have abandoned my people, my special possession. I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies. |
| 8The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest. They have roared defiantly at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them. | 8My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them with contempt. |
| 9The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas. But other birds of prey are all around them. Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts. Let them come and destroy these people I call my own. | 9My chosen people act like speckled vultures, but they themselves are surrounded by vultures. Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean! |
| 10Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people. They will trample all over my chosen land. They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland. | 10“Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness. |
| 11They will lay it waste. It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. | 11They have made it an empty wasteland; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate, and no one even cares. |
| 12A destructive army will come marching over the hilltops in the desert. For the LORD will use them as his destructive weapon against everyone from one end of the land to the other. No one will be safe. | 12On all the bare hilltops, destroying armies can be seen. The sword of the LORD devours people from one end of the nation to the other. No one will escape! |
| 13My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests because the LORD will take them away in his fierce anger. | 13My people have planted wheat but are harvesting thorns. They have worn themselves out, but it has done them no good. They will harvest a crop of shame because of the fierce anger of the LORD.” A Message for Israel’s Neighbors |
| 14"I, the LORD, also have something to say concerning the wicked nations who surround my land and have attacked and plundered the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. I say: 'I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. | 14Now this is what the LORD says: “I will uproot from their land all the evil nations reaching out for the possession I gave my people Israel. And I will uproot Judah from among them. |
| 15But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands and to their own country. | 15But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of them. I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own possession. |
| 16But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, "As surely as the LORD lives, I swear." If they do these things, then they will be included among the people I call my own. | 16And if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’ (just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal), then they will be given a place among my people. |
| 17But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,'" says the LORD. | 17But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the LORD, have spoken!” |
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