5
"If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble 1 in safe country,
how will you manage in the thickets by 2 the Jordan?
6
Your relatives, members of 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.
7
"I will forsake my house,
abandon my inheritance;
I will give the one I love
into the hands of her enemies.
8
My inheritance has become to me
like a lion in the forest.
She roars at me;
therefore I hate her.
9
Has 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.
10
Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard
and trample down my field;
they will turn my pleasant field
into a desolate wasteland.
11
It will be made a wasteland,
parched and desolate before me;
the whole land will be laid waste
because there is no one who cares.
12
Over 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.
13
They will sow wheat but reap thorns;
they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.
They will bear the shame of their harvest
because of the Lord's fierce anger."
14 This 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 people of Judah from among them. 15 But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. 16 And 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. 17 But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it," declares the Lord.