The Lord’s Reply

• 5 “If you run with foot soldiers and they have made you weary, then how will you compete with horses?
• If you have fallen in a peaceful land ,[fn]
  • then how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
  • 6 For even your relatives, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you,
• even they call loudly[fn] after you.
  • You must not trust in them, though they speak kindly to you.
  • 7 I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance. I have given the beloved one of my heart[fn] into the hand of her enemies.
  • 8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up against me her voice; therefore[fn] I hate her.
  • 9 The lair of the hyena is my inheritance to me, the birds of prey[fn] are all around her.
• Go, gather all of the animals[fn] of the field,
  • bring them to come and devour .[fn]
  • 10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my plot of land.
• They have made my pleasant field[fn]
  • like the desert[fn] of desolation.
  • 11 They have made it a desolation. Desolate, it mourns to me.
• All the land is made desolate,
  • but there is no person taking it to heart.
  • 12 Upon all the barren heights in the desert[fn] destroyers have come, for the sword of Yahweh devours,
• from one end of the land to the other end of the land,
  • there is no peace for all flesh.
  • 13 They have sown wheat and they have reaped thorns. They are exhausted, they do not profit.
• And they will be ashamed of your produce,
  • because of the burning anger[fn] of Yahweh.”

14 Thus says Yahweh concerning all of the evil neighbors who touch the inheritance that I gave as an inheritance to my people Israel: “Look, I am about to drive them out from their land, and the house of Judah I will drive out from among them. 15 ⌊And then⌋[fn] after my driving them out, I will once again have compassion on them, and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance, and each one to his land. 16 ⌊And then⌋,[fn] if they diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘⌊as Yahweh lives⌋,’[fn] even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will live in the midst of my people. 17 But if they do not listen, then ⌊I will completely uproot and destroy that nation⌋.”[fn] ⌊declares⌋[fn] Yahweh.