Jeremiah 12:7-17

7“I have abandoned My House. I have forsaken My inheritance. I have given the beloved of My soul Into the hand of her enemies.

8My inheritance became to Me like a lion in the forest— her voice roared against Me! Therefore I despised her.

9Is My inheritance a speckled vulture? Are vultures circling all around her? Go, gather all the wild beasts, bring them for devouring!

10“Many shepherds ruined My vineyard. They trampled My property. They made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

11They made it a wasteland. It mourns before Me, desolate. The whole land will be laid waste, because no one takes it to heart.”

12On all the bare hills in the wilderness destroyers have come. For the sword of Adonai is devouring from the one end of the land to the other end of the land. No flesh has shalom.

13They sowed wheat but reaped thorns. They wore themselves out, gaining nothing. So be ashamed of your harvest, because of Adonai’s fierce anger.

14Thus says Adonai, “As for all My evil neighbors who strike at the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people Israel—I am about to uproot them from their land and pluck the house of Judah from them.

15Yet it will come to pass, after I have uprooted them, that I will again have compassion on them and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.

16“So it will come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of My people—to swear by My Name, ‘As Adonai lives,’ just as they taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be built up in the midst of My people.

17But if they will not obey, then I will uproot that nation, plucking it up and destroying it.” It is a declaration of Adonai.