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¹ WOE is me! for I have become as when they have gathered the summer fruit, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul craves the first ripe fruit.² The righteous man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men; they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother for destruction.³ Their hands are ready to do evil, and they never do good; the governor asks for gold, and the judge says, Give me a bribe; and the prince speaks the desire of his soul.⁴ They have rejected the best part of them, and have become like rags which are eaten by the moth; the day of your watchmen and your salvation is come; but now it shall be their mourning.⁵ Trust not in your friends, put no confidence in your neighbors, guard the words of your mouth from your wife.⁶ For the son curses his father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a mans enemies are the members of his own household.

⁷ Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God my Saviour; my God will hear me.⁸ Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, because I have fallen; I shall rise again; though I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light to me.⁹ I will bear the affliction of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and avenges me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall see his righteousness.¹⁰ Then my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said to me, Where is the LORD your God? My eyes shall behold her; now she shall be trodden down like the mire of the streets.¹¹ It is a day to build your walls; it is a day to be lifted up.¹² It is a day when the people shall come to you from Assyria and from the fortified cities and from Tyre and even to the river and from sea to sea, as far as mount Hor.¹³ Nevertheless the land shall be desolate to its inhabitants because of the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴ Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, who shall dwell alone like sheep in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Mathnin and Gilead, as in the days of old.¹⁵ As in the day when you came out of the land of Egypt will I again show them marvellous things.¹⁶ The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.¹⁷ They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth; they shall tremble and be afraid of the LORD our God.¹⁸ There is no God like thee, who pardons iniquity and removes the sins of the remnant of his inheritance; thou retainest not thy anger for ever, because thou delightest in mercy.¹⁹ He will turn again and have mercy on us; he will sweep away our iniquity and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.²⁰ Thou wilt grant truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, as thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old.