Righteous are you, O Lord, that I shall make defense before you. Nevertheless I will speak judgments before you: Why is the way of the ungodly prospering? All who break faith have prospered.
How long shall the land mourn, and all the grass of the field be dried up, because of the evil of those who dwell in it? Beasts and birds have vanished, because they said, God will not see our ways.
If your feet run and weary you, how will you make ready on horses? And in a land of peace you have trusted; how will you do in the swelling of the Jordan?
For even your brothers and the house of your father, even these have dealt faithlessly with you; and they themselves cried out after you; they were gathered together. Do not trust in them, though they will speak good things to you.
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have defiled my portion; they have given my desirable portion into a desolate wilderness, untraversable.
It was put into desolation of destruction because of me; with desolation all the earth was made desolate, because there is no man putting it in his heart.
Upon every open place in the wilderness they came, afflicting, because the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth; there is no peace for all flesh.
You have sown wheat and reaped thorns; their portions will not profit them. Be put to shame because of your boasting, because of reproach before the Lord.
For thus says the Lord concerning all the evil neighbors who touch my inheritance, which I apportioned to my people Israel: behold, I am tearing them away from their land, and Judah I will cast out from among them.
And it shall be after my casting out of them, I will turn back and have mercy on them, and I will make each one dwell in his inheritance and each one in his land.
And it shall be, if they by learning learn the way of my people, to swear by my name, As the Lord lives, just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.