12 LORD, you always give me justice Why are evil people so happy? 2 You have planted them, but you are far from their hearts. 3 But as for me, LORD, you know my heart. Set them aside to be slaughtered! 4 How long must this land mourn? “The LORD doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!” 5 “If racing against mere men makes you tired, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan? 6 Even your brothers, members of your own family, no matter how pleasantly they speak. 7 “I have abandoned my people, my special possession. I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies. 8 My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them with contempt. 9 My chosen people act like speckled vultures, Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean! 10 “Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness. 11 They have made it an empty wasteland; and no one even cares. 12 On all the bare hilltops, No one will escape! 13 My people have planted wheat because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”
A Message for Israel’s Neighbors
14 Now this is what the LORD says: “I will uproot from their land all the evil nations reaching out for the possession I gave my people Israel. And I will uproot Judah from among them. 15 But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of them. I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own possession. 16 And if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’ (just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal), then they will be given a place among my people. 17 But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the LORD, have spoken!”