Jeremiah 12:7-17

7“I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.

8My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her.

9Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack? Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.

10Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.

11It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.

12Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the Lord will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.

13They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the Lord’s fierce anger.”

14This is what the Lord says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them.

15But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country.

16And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people.

17But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it,” declares the Lord.