¹If I took you to court, LORD ,

you would win.

But I still have questions about your justice.

Why do guilty persons enjoy success?

Why are evildoers so happy?

²You plant them, and they take root;

they flourish and bear fruit.

You are always on their lips

but far from their hearts.

³Yet you, LORD , you know me.

You see me.

You can tell that I love you.

So drag them away

and butcher them like sheep.

Prepare them for the slaughterhouse.

⁴How long will the land mourn

and the grass in the fields dry up?

The animals and birds are swept away

due to the evil of those in the land.

The people say,

“God doesn’t see what we’re up to!”

⁵If you have raced with people and are worn out,

how will you compete with horses?

If you fall down in an open field,

how will you survive in the forest along the Jordan?

⁶Even your relatives, your very family,

are planning to trap you.

So don’t trust them,

God’s lament over Judah’s destruction

⁷I have abandoned my house;

I have deserted my inheritance.

I have given the one I love

⁸My inheritance has turned against me

like a lion in the forest;

⁹My inheritance has become

like a bird of prey,

Go, gather all the wild animals for the feast.

¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;

they have trampled down my field;

they have reduced my treasured field

¹¹They have devastated her;

desolate, she cries out to me in distress:

¹²Over all the desert roads

destroyers march;

from one end of the land to the other;

¹³They have sown wheat and reaped weeds;

they have worn themselves out for nothing.

They will be ashamed of their harvest

on account of the LORD ’s fierce anger.

¹⁴The LORD proclaims: The evil nations have seized the land that I gave my people Israel. I’m going to dig them up from their own lands, and I will dig up the people of Judah from among them.[#12.14 Or inheritance]

¹⁵And after I have dug them up, I will again have compassion on them and restore their inheritance and their land.

¹⁶And then, if they will learn the ways of my people, to make a solemn pledge in my name, “As the LORD lives,” just as they once taught my people to swear to Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.

¹⁷But if they don’t listen, I will dig up that nation; yes, I will dig up and destroy, declares the LORD .