1. You are right, O Lord, when I contend with You, but I will argue with You. Why has the way of the wicked prospered, all who deal with treachery have peace?
2. You have planted them, they have even taken root, they have even produced fruit. You are near in their mouths but far from their thoughts.
3. But You, O Lord, have known me, You see me, and You try my heart with You. Draw them out like sheep to the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4. How long will the land mourn and the grass of all the field dry out? " Because of the evil of its inhabitants, beasts and fowl are ended, for they said, "He will not see our end."
5. For if you have run with footmen and they wearied you, how will you compete with horses, and in the peaceful land which you trust, how will you do in the heights of the Jordan?
6. For, even your brethren, and your father's household, they too have dealt treacherously with you, they too have called a gang after you; do not believe them although they speak cordially to you.
7. I have abandoned My House, I have forsaken My inheritance; I have delivered My soul's beloved into the hand of her enemies.
8. My inheritance was to Me like a lion in the forest; she raised her voice against Me; therefore, I hated her.
9. Is My inheritance to Me a speckled bird of prey? Are there birds of prey around her? Go, gather all the beasts of the field; come to eat.
10. Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled My field; they have made My delightful field into a desert waste.
11. He has made it a waste; the wasted one mourns before Me; the entire land is waste because no one lays it to his heart.
12. On all the rivulets in the pastureland have plunderers come, for the sword of the Lord consumes from one end of the land to the other end of the land; there is no peace for any flesh.
13. They sowed wheat, but they reaped thorns; they have become ill to no avail. Be ashamed of your increase, because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
14. So says the Lord: Concerning all My wicked neighbors who touch the inheritance that I have given My nation, Israel, to inherit, behold I uproot them from upon their land, and the house of Judah I will uproot from their midst.
15. And it shall come to pass, that after I uproot them, I will return and have pity on them, and I will restore them, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.
16. And it shall be, if they learn the ways of My people to swear by My name, "As the Lord lives," as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they shall be built up in the midst of My people.
17. And if they do not heed, I shall uproot that nation, uprooting and destroying, says the Lord.
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