1Yahweh, whenever I tell you that I am unhappy about what is happening to me, you always act justly/fairly. So now allow me to ask about one more thing that I do not understand: Why are wicked people often very prosperous? Why do things go very well for dishonest/wicked people?
2You allow them to prosper like MET trees that grow tall and bear a lot of fruit. They always say MTY good things about you, but their hearts are really far from you.
3But Yahweh, as for me, you know what is in my inner being. You see what I do and you are able to know what I am thinking. So drag away those wicked people, like people drag away sheep that they are going to butcher. Set them aside like sheep that are about to be slaughtered!
4This land is RHQ becoming very dry and even the grass is withering. The wild animals and the birds have all died because the people are very wicked. All that has happened because the people have said, “Yahweh does not know what we are doing (OR, what will happen to us)!”
5Then to show me that I needed to be prepared to endure even greater difficulties, Yahweh said to me, “It is as though you have become exhausted from racing against men; so how will you be able to race against horses? If you stumble and fall when you are running on open/bare/smooth ground, what will happen to you when you are running through the thornbushes near the Jordan River?
6Already your brothers and other members of your own family oppose you. They ◄plot against/plan to do evil things to► you and they say bad things about you. So even if they say nice things about you, do not trust them!
7I have abandoned my Israeli people, the people whom I chose to belong to me. I have allowed their enemies to conquer the Israeli people, whom I love.
8My people have become to me like SIM a lion in the forest. It is as though they roar at me like a lion, so now I hate them.
9My chosen people have RHQ become like speckled hawks that are surrounded by vultures waiting to eat their flesh after they are dead. Tell all the wild animals to come and eat the flesh of their corpses.
10Many rulers from other countries have come with their armies and devastated/destroyed my people whom I care for like a farmer takes care of his vineyard. They have caused my beautiful land to become a barren desert where no one lives.
11They have caused it to become completely empty; it is as though I hear the land crying sadly/mournfully. The whole land is desolate, and no one ◄worries about/pays any attention to► it.
12The soldiers of our enemies have marched across all the barren hilltops. But I, Yahweh, am using those armies MTY to punish your land from one end to the other, and no one will escape.
13It is as though my people planted wheat, but now they are harvesting thorns. They have become very tired because of much hard work, but they have gained nothing from all that work. They will be very disappointed because their harvests will be very small, and that will happen because I, Yahweh, am extremely angry with them.”
14This is also what Yahweh said to me: “ I will punish the evil nearby nations that have been trying to take away the land that I gave to my Israeli people, and I will force them to leave their own land. But I will throw the people of Judah out of their land, also.
15But later I will act mercifully toward those nations again, and I will bring them back to their own lands again. Each clan will come back to its own land.
16And if the people of the other nations whose armies have invaded Israel learn the religious customs of my people, and if they learn that I am listening when they solemnly promise that they will do something good, like they taught my people to believe that their god Baal was listening when they made solemn promises, I will cause them to become prosperous, and they also will be my people.
17But I will expel any nation whose people refuse to obey me, and I will destroy that nation and its people. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”
