<p class="poetry">&#8220;I will abandon my nation.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will forsake the people I call my own.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I will turn my beloved people<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">over to the power<n id="4" /> of their enemies.p>

<p class="poetry">The people I call my own<n id="1" /> have turned on mep> <p class="poetry">like a lion<n id="2" /> in the forest.p> <p class="poetry">They have roared defiantly<n id="3" /> at me.p> <p class="poetry">So I will treat them as though I hate them.<n id="4" />p>

But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent<n id="1" /> and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands<n id="2" /> and to their own country.

<p class="poetry">I brought you<n id="1" /> into a fertile landp> <p class="poetry">so you could enjoy<n id="2" /> its fruits and its rich bounty.p> <p class="poetry">But when you entered my land, you defiled it;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">you made the land I call my own<n id="4" /> loathsome to me.p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc>, who is the inheritance<n id="1" /> of Jacob&#8217;s descendants,<n id="2" /> is not like them.p> <p class="poetry">He is the one who created everything.p> <p class="poetry">And the people of Israel are those he claims as his own.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">He is known as the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">But other birds of prey are all around them.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts.p> <p class="poetry">Let them come and destroy these people I call my own.<n id="3" />p>

Before I restore them<n id="1" /> I will punish them in full<n id="2" /> for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own<n id="3" /> with their detestable idols.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;People of Babylonia,<n id="1" /> you plundered my people.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">That made you happy and glad.p> <p class="poetry">You frolic about like calves in a pasture.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc>, who is the portion of the descendants of Jacob, is not like them.p> <p class="poetry">For he is the one who created everything,p> <p class="poetry">including the people of Israel whom he claims as his own.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">He is known as the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;I thought to myself,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">What a joy it would be for me to give<n id="3" /> you a pleasant land,p> <p class="poetry">the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!&#8217;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">I thought you would call me, &#8216;Father&#8217;<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">and would never cease being loyal to me.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, also have something to say concerning<n id="1" /> the wicked nations who surround my land<n id="2" /> and have attacked and plundered<n id="3" /> the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession.<n id="4" /> I say: &#8216;I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there.<n id="5" />

<p class="poetry">You will lose your hold on the land<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">which I gave to you as a permanent possession.p> <p class="poetry">I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about.p> <p class="poetry">For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>