Read the Bible

¹ I feel so empty inside—
like someone starving
    for grapes or figs,
after the vines and trees
    have all been picked clean.
² No one is loyal to God;
    no one does right.
Everyone is brutal
and eager to deceive
    everyone else.
³ People cooperate to commit crime.
Judges and leaders demand bribes,
    and rulers cheat in court.^[a]
4 The most honest of them
    is worse than a thorn patch.

Your doom has come!
Lookouts sound the warning,
    and everyone panics.
⁵ Don't trust anyone,
    not even your best friend,
and be careful what you say
    to the one you love.

⁶ Sons refuse to respect
    their own fathers,
daughters rebel against
    their own mothers,
and daughters-in-law despise
    their mothers-in-law.
Your family is now your enemy.
⁷ But I trust the Lord God
    to save me,
and I will wait for him
    to answer my prayer.

⁸ My enemies, don't be glad
    because of my troubles!
I may have fallen,
    but I will get up;
I may be sitting in the dark,
    but the Lord is my light.
⁹ I have sinned against the Lord.
And so I must endure his anger,
    until he comes to my defense.
But I know that I will see him
making things right for me
    and leading me to the light.

¹⁰ You, my enemies, said,
    "The Lord God is helpless."
Now each of you
will be disgraced
    and put to shame.
I will see you trampled
    like mud in the street.

¹¹ Towns of Judah, the day is coming
when your walls will be rebuilt,
    and your boundaries enlarged.
¹² People will flock to you
    from Assyria and Egypt,
from Babylonia^[b]
    and everywhere else.
¹³ Those nations will suffer disaster
    because of what they did.

¹⁴ Lead your people, Lord!
    Come and be our shepherd.
Grasslands surround us,
    but we live in a forest.
So lead us to Bashan and Gilead,^[c]
and let us find pasture
    as we did long ago.

¹⁵ I, the Lord, will work miracles
just as I did
when I led you
    out of Egypt.
¹⁶ Nations will see this
and be ashamed
because
    of their helpless armies.
They will be in shock,
    unable to speak or hear,
¹⁷ because of their fear of me,
    your Lord and God.
Then they will come trembling,
crawling out of their fortresses
    like insects or snakes,
    lapping up the dust.

¹⁸ Our God, no one is like you.
We are all that is left
    of your chosen people,
and you freely forgive
    our sin and guilt.
You don't stay angry forever;
you're glad to have pity
¹⁹     and pleased to be merciful.
You will trample on our sins
    and throw them in the sea.
²⁰ You will keep your word
and be faithful to Jacob
    and to Abraham,
as you promised our ancestors
    many years ago.