1How terrible for me! Indeed, I am like someone gathering summer fruit, like picking up leftover grapes after the harvest. There are no bunches of grapes to eat. I long for an early fig.
2Good people have disappeared from the earth, and no one is honest among men. They all wait to shed blood; everyone hunts his brother with a net.
3Their hands are eager to do evil. The ruler and judge demand bribes, and the powerful man speaks his evil desires. This is how they conspire together.
4The best of them is like a thorny bush. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day your watchmen spoke of, your punishment, has arrived; now is the time of their confusion.
5Don't trust your neighbor. Don't confide in a friend. Be careful what you say, even to the woman in your arms!
6For the son disrespects his father, the daughter rebels against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A person's enemies are the members of their own household.
7But as for me, I will look to Yahweh. I will wait for the God who saves me. My God will hear me.
8Don’t be happy about my misfortune, my enemy. Even when I fall, I will get up again. Even when I am in darkness, Yahweh will be a light for me.
9I will endure Yahweh’s anger because I have sinned against him, until he argues my case and gives me justice. He will bring me into the light, and I will see his righteousness.
10Then my enemy will see it and be ashamed, the one who asked me, “Where is Yahweh your God?” Then my enemy will see me and hide her shame. She will be trampled down like mud in the streets.
11There will be a day to rebuild your walls. On that day, he will expand your territory.
12In that day, people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
13Yet, the land will be empty and destroyed because of the people who live there, due to the consequences of their actions.
14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that is your special possession, who live by themselves in a forest, in the middle of fertile pasture land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as they did in the old days.
15“Just as in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them amazing things.”
16The nations will see this and be ashamed of all their strength. They will cover their mouths in shock. Their ears will be deaf to everything.
17They will lick the dust like a snake. Like creatures that crawl on the ground, they will come trembling out of their hiding places. They will come in fear to Yahweh our God and will be afraid because of you.
18Who is a God like you, who forgives wrongdoing and overlooks the disobedience of the small group of your people who are left? He doesn't stay angry forever, because he loves kindness.
19He will again have pity on us. He will crush our wrongdoings under his feet; and you will throw all their sins into the deep sea.
20You will be faithful to Jacob and show mercy to Abraham, just as you promised our ancestors long ago.