You are righteous, יהוה, because I will argue with you. Yet, I will speak judgments with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? All who deal treacherously are secure.

They are planted, they also take root. They also go and make fruit. You are near in their mouth, but far from their kidneys.

But you, יהוה, you know me. You see me and you test my heart with you. Separate them like sheep for slaughter, and consecrate them for the day of killing.

How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither because of the wickedness of its inhabitants? Beasts and birds have been consumed, because they said, 'He will not see our end.'

If feet have run with you, and they have tired you, how will you contend with horses? And in a land of peace you trust, yet how will you do in the pride of the Yarden?

For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. Even they have called out after you. Do not trust them, even when they speak good things to you.

I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance. I have given the beloved of my soul into the hand of its enemies.

My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. It has roared against me; therefore, I have hated it.

Has my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey around it? Go, gather all the beasts of the field; bring them to devour.

Many shepherds have ruined my vineyard. They have trampled my portion. They have made my desirable portion a desolate wilderness.

They have made it a desolation; it mourns for me. The whole land is desolate because no one takes it to heart.

Upon all the heights in the wilderness, destroyers have come. For the sword of יהוה devours from one end of the land to the other end of the land. There is no peace for any flesh.

They have sown wheat, but have reaped thorns. They have labored in vain, and you are ashamed of your harvest because of the fierce anger of יהוה.

Thus says יהוה concerning all my evil neighbors who strike the inheritance which I have inherited for my people, for Yisra'el. Behold, I am plucking them from their land, and I will pluck the house of Yehudah from among them.

And it will be after I have plucked them, I will return and have compassion on them, and I will bring them back, each to his inheritance and each to his land.

And it will be, if they will learn the ways of my people to swear by my name, 'As יהוה lives,' just as they taught my people to swear by Ba'al, then they will be built in the midst of my people.

But if they will not listen, then I will pluck that nation, pluck and destroy it, declares יהוה.