Yahweh replied to Jeremiah

5 Then to show me that I needed to be prepared to endure even greater difficulties, Yahweh said to me,

“It is as though you have become exhausted from racing against men;

so how will you be able to race against horses?

If you stumble and fall when you are running on open/bare/smooth ground,

what will happen to you when you are running through the thornbushes near the Jordan River?

6 Already your brothers and other members of your own family oppose you.

They ◄plot against/plan to do evil things to► you and they say bad things about you.

So even if they say nice things about you,

do not trust them!

7 I have abandoned my Israeli people,

the people whom I chose to belong to me.

I have allowed their enemies to conquer the Israeli people, whom I love.

8 My people have become to me like [SIM] a lion in the forest.

It is as though they roar at me like a lion,

so now I hate them.

9 My chosen people have [RHQ] become like speckled hawks

that are surrounded by vultures waiting to eat their flesh after they are dead.

Tell all the wild animals to come

and eat the flesh of their corpses.

10 Many rulers from other countries have come with their armies and devastated/destroyed my people

whom I care for like a farmer takes care of his vineyard.

They have caused my beautiful land to become a barren desert where no one lives.

11 They have caused it to become completely empty;

it is as though I hear the land crying sadly/mournfully.

The whole land is desolate,

and no one ◄worries about/pays any attention to► it.

12 The soldiers of our enemies have marched across all the barren hilltops.

But I, Yahweh, am using those armies [MTY] to punish your land from one end to the other,

and no one will escape.

13 It is as though my people planted wheat,

but now they are harvesting thorns.

They have become very tired because of much hard work,

but they have gained nothing from all that work.

They will be very disappointed because their harvests will be very small,

and that will happen because I, Yahweh, am extremely angry with them.”

14 This is also what Yahweh said to me: “I will punish the evil nearby nations that have been trying to take away the land that I gave to my Israeli people, and I will force them to leave their own land. But I will throw the people of Judah out of their land, also. 15 But later I will act mercifully toward those nations again, and I will bring them back to their own lands again. Each clan will come back to its own land. 16 And if the people of the other nations whose armies have invaded Israel learn the religious customs of my people, and if they learn that I am listening when they solemnly promise that they will do something good, like they taught my people to believe that their god Baal was listening when they made solemn promises, I will cause them to become prosperous, and they also will be my people. 17 But I will expel any nation whose people refuse to obey me, and I will destroy that nation and its people. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”