Jeremiah 12:7-13

12:7 “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.

12:8 The 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.

12:9 The 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.

12:10 Many 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.

12:11 They 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.

12:12 A 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.

12:13 My 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.