| NET Bible | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1LORD, you have always been fair whenever I have complained to you. However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. Why are wicked people successful? Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives? | 1You will be righteous, LORD, even if I bring a case against You. Yet, I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the treacherous live at ease? |
| 2You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you. | 2You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their conscience. |
| 3But you, LORD, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered! Appoint a time when they will be killed! | 3As for You, LORD, You know me; You see me. You test whether my heart is with You. Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughter and set them apart for the day of killing. |
| 4How long must the land be parched and the grass in every field be withered? How long must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? For these people boast, "God will not see what happens to us." | 4How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? Because of the evil of its residents, animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, "He cannot see what our end will be." |
| 5The LORD answered, "If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out, how will you be able to compete with horses? And if you feel secure only in safe and open country, how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River? | 5If you have raced with runners and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan? |
| 6As a matter of fact, even your own brothers and the members of your own family have betrayed you too. Even they have plotted to do away with you. So do not trust them even when they say kind things to you. | 6Even your brothers--your own father's household-- even they were treacherous to you; even they have cried out loudly after you. Do not have confidence in them, though they speak well of you. |
| 7"I will abandon my nation. I will forsake the people I call my own. I will turn my beloved people over to the power of their enemies. | 7I have abandoned My house; I have deserted My inheritance. I have given the love of My life into the hands of her enemies. |
| 8The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest. They have roared defiantly at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them. | 8My inheritance has acted toward Me like a lion in the forest. She has roared against Me. Therefore, I hate her. |
| 9The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas. But other birds of prey are all around them. Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts. Let them come and destroy these people I call my own. | 9Is My inheritance like a hyena to Me? Are birds of prey circling her? Go, gather all the wild animals; bring them to devour her. |
| 10Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people. They will trample all over my chosen land. They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland. | 10Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of land. They have turned My desirable plot into a desolate wasteland. |
| 11They will lay it waste. It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. | 11They have made it a desolation. It mourns, desolate, before Me. All the land is desolate, but no one takes it to heart. |
| 12A destructive army will come marching over the hilltops in the desert. For the LORD will use them as his destructive weapon against everyone from one end of the land to the other. No one will be safe. | 12Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the LORD has a sword that devours from one end of the earth to the other. No one has peace. |
| 13My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests because the LORD will take them away in his fierce anger. | 13They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves but have no profit. Be put to shame by your harvests because of the LORD's burning anger. |
| 14"I, the LORD, also have something to say concerning the wicked nations who surround my land and have attacked and plundered the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. I say: 'I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. | 14This is what the LORD says: "Concerning all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people, Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them. |
| 15But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands and to their own country. | 15After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land. |
| 16But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people. Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, "As surely as the LORD lives, I swear." If they do these things, then they will be included among the people I call my own. | 16If they will diligently learn the ways of My people--to swear by My name, 'As Yahweh lives,' just as they taught My people to swear by Baal--they will be built up among My people. |
| 17But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,'" says the LORD. | 17However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation." This is the LORD's declaration. |
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