1 You are in the right, O LORD, whenever I argue my case with you; yet I would speak with you of matters of justice. Why does the way of the wicked succeed? Why do all the faithless live in peace?
2 You planted them, and they took root; they go on and produce fruit. You are near in their mouth, but far from their inmost self.
3 Yet you, LORD, know me; you see me and you examine my heart, how it is with you. Pull them out like sheep for slaughter, and consecrate them for the day of killing.
4 How long must the land mourn, and the plants of every field dry up? For the evil of those who live in it, beasts and birds are swept off, since they said, "He will not see how we end."
5 "If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you, how can you compete with horses? And if in a peaceful land you feel safe, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
6 For even your brothers and your father's house, even they have betrayed you; even they shout after you at full voice. Do not trust them, though they say good things to you.
7 "I have left my house; I have cast off my inheritance; I have given the darling of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
8 My inheritance has turned on me like a lion in the forest; she has roared at me; therefore I have come to hate her.
9 Is my inheritance a speckled bird of prey to me, with birds of prey circling against her? Go, gather every wild beast; bring them to eat.
10 Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard; they have trampled my plot; they have turned my delightful plot into a desolate wilderness.
11 It has been made a waste; it mourns to me, desolate. All the land lies waste, for no one takes it to heart.
12 Over all the bare heights in the desert the destroyers have come, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the land to the other; there is no peace for any flesh.
13 They sowed wheat and harvested thorns; they wore themselves out and gained nothing. Be ashamed of your produce, because of the burning anger of the LORD."
14 Thus says the LORD about all my evil neighbors who strike at the inheritance I gave my people Israel to possess: "See, I will uproot them from their land, and the house of Judah I will uproot from among them.
15 Then, after I have uprooted them, I will once more have compassion on them and bring them back, each to his inheritance and each to his land.
16 And if they will truly learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, 'As the LORD lives,' just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.
17 But if they do not listen, I will uproot that nation, uproot and destroy it," declares the LORD.