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¹ Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape-gleanings of the vintage: [there is] no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fruit.² The good [man] hath perished from the earth: and [there is] none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.³ That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge [asketh] for a reward; and the great [man], he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.⁴ The best of them [is] as a brier: the most upright [is sharper] than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen [and] thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.⁵ Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.⁶ For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies [are] the men of his own house.

⁷ Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.⁸ Rejoice not against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD [will be] a light to me.⁹ I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he shall plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, [and] I shall behold his righteousness.¹⁰ Then [she that is] my enemy shall see [it], and shame shall cover her who said to me, Where is the LORD thy God? my eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.¹¹ [In] the day that thy walls are to be built, [in] that day shall the decree be far removed.¹² [In] that day [also] he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and [from] the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and [from] mountain to mountain.¹³ Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell in it, for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴ Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, who dwell solitarily [in] the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed [in] Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.¹⁵ According to the days of thy departure from the land of Egypt will I show to him marvelous [things].¹⁶ The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay [their] hand 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 be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.¹⁸ Who [is] a God like to thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth [in] mercy.¹⁹ He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.²⁰ Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, [and] the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old.