1How I sorrow! For I am like the gatherer of summer fruit, like the gleaner of the vintage, when there are no grapes to eat, none of the early figs I crave.
2The godly have vanished from the earth and not one upright man is to be found. All lie in ambush to shed blood, one hunts another with a net. 3Their hands are skilled at doing evil. The official demands a bribe, the judge judges for a price and the mighty decides as he pleases.
4Their kindness is like a brier, their justice worse than a thorn hedge. But the time of pun ishment has come, and now is the time of confusion.
5Do not rely on a friend nor trust an intimate companion. Be guarded in speech with the woman who shares your bed. 6For son treats father like a fool, daughter rebels against moth er, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. The enemies of each one are those of his household.
7As for me, I will watch expectantly for Yah weh, waiting hopefully for the God who saves me. My God will hear me.
Poem of exile – Jerusalem will rise
8Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; though I have fallen, I will rise again. Though I now dwell in darkness, Yahweh is my light.
9I will bear the wrath of Yahweh – for I have sinned against him – while he examines my cause and defends my rights. Then he will bring me out to the light and I shall probe his justice.
10Then my enemy shall also see and shame will cover her. Did she not say, “Where is Yahweh, your God?” My eyes, then, shall rejoice: See how she is trampled like mud in the street!
11The day is coming when your walls will be rebuilt and your boundaries extended.
12On that day they will come to you from Assyria to Egypt, from Tyre to the Euphrates, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain, 13while the earth will remain desolate because of its citizens and their deeds.
14Shepherd your people with your staff, shepherd the flock of your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, in the midst of a fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead 15as in the days of old, in the days when you went out of Egypt.
Show us your wonders. 16On seeing this the nations will be put to shame in the midst of all their might. People will lay their hands upon their mouths and they will not believe the news.
17They shall lick the dust like snakes, like creatures that crawl upon the ground. They will come trembling out of their strongholds; they will be in fear of you.
18Who is a god like you, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of his inheritance?
Who is like you whose anger does not last? For you delight in merciful forgiveness.
19Once again you will show us your loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.
20Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.
