1Yahweh, you are righteous when I argue with you, yet I want to discuss a matter with you: Why do wicked people succeed? Why do all who betray others live easy lives?
2You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and produce fruit. You are often on their lips, but far from their hearts.
3But you, Yahweh, know me. You see me and test my heart to see if it is loyal to you. Drag them out like sheep to be slaughtered, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.
4How long will the land mourn and the plants throughout the country wither? Because of the wickedness of those who live in it, the animals and birds are gone. This is because they said, “He will not see what happens to us in the end.”
5“If you have struggled when running with foot soldiers and they have worn you out, how will you compete with horses? If you feel secure only in a peaceful land, what will you do in the dense thickets of the Jordan River?”
6For even your brothers and your father’s family have betrayed you; they have called out loudly after you. Don’t trust them, even when they speak kind words to you.
7“I have abandoned my house. I have given up my people. I have handed the one I dearly love over to her enemies.
8My people have become like a lion in the forest to me. She has roared against me; therefore, I hate her.
9Is my people like a spotted bird of prey to me? Are other birds of prey surrounding her? Go, gather all the wild animals and bring them to devour her.”
10Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard. They have trampled my land underfoot. They have turned my pleasant property into a desolate wilderness.
11They have made it a wasteland. It mourns to me, being desolate. The whole land is made desolate, because no one cares.
12Destroyers have come to all the high places in the wilderness, because Yahweh’s sword is devouring the land from one end to the other. No one has peace.
13They have planted wheat, but harvested thorns. They have worked hard for nothing. You will be ashamed of what you produce, because of Yahweh’s fierce anger.”
14Yahweh says, “Concerning all my evil neighbors who claim the land I gave my people Israel: I will uproot them from their land and will remove the people of Judah from among them.
15But after I have uprooted them, I will again show them compassion. I will bring each person back to their own land and their own inheritance.
16If they diligently learn the ways of my people and swear by my name, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up among my people.
17But if they refuse to listen, then I will completely uproot and destroy that nation,” says Yahweh.