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          DASV: Jeremiah 12    

1 You are righteous, O LORD,
      when I bring my complaint to you,
           so let me bring this case to you.
      Why is the way of the wicked prosperous?
      Why do all who are dishonest have such cushy lives?
2 You have planted them,
      they have taken root;
           they grow and produce fruit.
      You are always on their lips,
           but far from their hearts.
3 Yet you know me O LORD;
           you see me and test my heart's commitment to you.
      Drag them away like sheep for the slaughter.
      Set them aside for the day of slaughter.
4 How long will the land mourn,
      and the herbs of the entire countryside wither,
           for the wickedness of those who live there?
      The birds and animals have been swept away,
          because they said, "God does not see our destiny."

5 "If you have run against human runners
     and they have tired you out,
           then how can you compete with horses?
      If you stumble in a safe open land,
           yet how will you do in the thickets along the Jordan River?
6 For even your brothers and family
          have dealt treacherously with you.
      They have cried aloud against you.
      Do not believe them
           when they say flattering things to you.
7 I have forsaken my house,
     I have abandoned my heritage;
      I have given the beloved of my soul
          into the hand of her enemies.
8 My heritage has become like a lion in the forest to me.
     She has roared against me;
           therefore I have hated her.
9 Is my heritage like a speckled bird of prey
          that is surrounded and attacked by vultures?
      Go, gather all the wild animals of the field;
          bring them to devour my people.
10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
     they have trampled down my portion;
           they have made my pleasant vineyard
           a desolate wilderness.
11 They have turned it into a wasteland.
     It mourns to me, being desolate.
      The whole land is desolate,
           because no one really cares.
12 Destroyers are come on all the bare hilltops in the wilderness,
     for the sword of the LORD devours from the one end of the land
           to the other end.
      Nobody will be safe.
13 They have planted wheat,
           but have reaped thorns.
      They have worked themselves to exhaustion,
           and have profited nothing.
      They will be ashamed of their harvests,
           because of the fierce anger of the LORD."
14 This is what the LORD says against all my evil neighbors,
who grab the inheritance which I have given my people
Israel to inherit. "Look, I will uproot them from their
own land and will uproot the house of Judah from among
them.
15 After I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion
on them; I will bring them back again, each to their own
heritage, and every one to their own land.
16 If they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to
swear oaths by my name, 'As the LORD lives;' just like they
taught my people to swear oaths by Baal; then they will be
built up in the midst of my people.
17 But if they will not listen, then I will uproot that
nation, plucking it up and destroying it," says the LORD.

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