12You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?H6662H3068H7378H1696H4941H1870H7563H6743H7951H899H8982You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.H5193H8327H3212H6213H6529H7138H6310H7350H36293Yet you know me, O LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter!H3068H3045H7200H974H3820H5423H6629H2878H6942H3117H20284How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, "He will not see what happens to us."H776H56H6212H7704H3001H7451H3427H929H5595H5775H559H7200H319
God’s Answer
5"If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?H7323H7273H3811H8474H5483H776H7965H982H6213H1347H33836Your brothers, your own family—even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.H251H1004H1H898H7121H4392H310H539H1696H28967"I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.H5800H1004H5203H5159H5414H3033H5315H3709H3418My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her.H5159H738H3293H5414H6963H81309Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack? Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.H5159H6641H5861H5861H5439H3212H622H2416H7704H857H40210Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.H7227H7462H7843H3754H947H2513H947H5414H2532H2513H8077H405711It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.H7760H8076H8077H56H776H8074H376H7760H382012Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.H7703H935H8205H4057H2719H3068H398H7097H776H7097H776H1320H796513They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the LORD'S fierce anger."H2232H2406H7114H6975H2470H3276H954H8393H2740H639H306814This is what the LORD says: "As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them.H559H3068H7451H7934H5060H5159H5971H3478H5157H5428H127H5428H1004H3063H843215But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country.H310H5428H7725H7355H7725H376H5159H376H77616And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives'—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people.H3925H3925H1870H5971H7650H8034H3068H2416H3925H5971H7650H1168H1129H8432H597117But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it," declares the LORD.H8085H5428H5428H6H1471H5002H3068