Dual Panel1LORD, even if I dispute with you, you remain in the right; yet I shall plead my case before you. Why do the wicked prosper and the treacherous all live at ease?
2You have planted them and their roots strike deep, they grow and bear fruit. You are ever on their lips, yet far from their hearts.
3But you know me, LORD, you see me; you test my devotion to you. Drag them away like sheep to the shambles; set them apart for the day of slaughter.
4How long must the country lie parched and all its green grass wither? No birds and beasts are left, because its people are so wicked, because they say, “God does not see what we are doing.”
5If you have raced with men running on foot and they have worn you down, how then can you hope to compete with horses? If in easy country you fall headlong, how will you fare in Jordan's dense thickets?
6Even your brothers and kinsmen deal treacherously with you, they are in full cry after you; do not trust them, for all the fair words they use.
7I have abandoned the house of Israel, I have cast off my own people. I have given my beloved into the power of her foes.
8My own people have turned on me like lions from the jungle; they roar against me, therefore I hate them.
9Is this land of mine a hyena's lair, with birds of prey hovering all around it? Come, all you wild beasts; come, flock to the feast.
10Many shepherds have ravaged my vineyard and trampled down my portion of land, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness;
11they have made it a desolation, to my sorrow. The whole land is desolate, but no one pays heed.
12Plunderers have swarmed across the open regions of the wilderness; a sword of the LORD devours the land from end to end; there is no peace for any living thing.
13Men sow wheat and reap thistles; they sift but get no grain. Their harvest is a disappointment to them because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
14These are the words of the LORD about all those evil neighbours who encroach on the land which I allotted to my people Israel as their holding: I shall uproot them from their own soil. Also I shall uproot Judah from among them;
15but after I have uprooted them, I shall have pity on them again and bring each man back to his holding and land.
16If they will learn the ways of my people, swearing by my name, “by the life of the LORD”, as they taught my people to swear by the Baal, they will establish families among my people.
17But the nation that will not listen, I shall uproot and destroy. This is the word of the LORD.