1Woe is me! For I have become like the gatherings of summer fruit, like the gleanings of the grape harvest: there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that my soul craves.
2The loyal one has perished from the land, and there is no upright one among mankind. All of them lie in wait for blood; each hunts his brother with a net.
3Their hands are on evil to do it well: the official demands, and the judge is out for a bribe, and the great man speaks the desire of his soul—so they weave it together.
4The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, your visitation, has come; now shall come their confusion.
5Do not trust in a neighbor; do not rely on a close friend. From her who lies in your bosom, guard the doors of your mouth.
6For a son treats his father with contempt, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
7But as for me, I will watch for Yahweh; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
8Do not rejoice over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise; though I sit in darkness, Yahweh is a light for me.
9I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes my judgment. He will bring me out to the light; I will look upon his righteousness.
10Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her—she who said to me, “Where is Yahweh your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.
11A day for building your walls! On that day the boundary will be far extended.
12It is a day when he will come to you, from Assyria and the fortified cities, from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
13But the land will become a desolation because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of Carmel. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.
15As in the days of your coming out from the land of Egypt, I will show him wondrous things.
16The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might; they will put their hand over their mouth; their ears will be deaf.
17They will lick the dust like the serpent, like crawling things of the earth; they will come trembling out of their strongholds. To Yahweh our God they will come in dread, and they will fear because of you.
18Who is a God like you, bearing away iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not hold on to his anger forever, for he delights in loyal love.
19He will again have compassion on us; he will tread down our iniquities. You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20You will give faithfulness to Jacob, loyal love to Abraham, which you swore to our fathers from the days of old.
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