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[1]Alasfor me! for I am become as one gathering straw in harvest, and as one gathering grape-gleanings in the vintage, when there is no cluster for me to eat the first-ripe fruit: alas my soul!
[2]Forthe godly is perished from the earth; and there is none among men that orders his way aright: they all quarrel even to blood: they grievously afflict every one his neighbour:
[3]theyprepare their hands for mischief, the prince asks a reward, and the judge speaks flattering words; it is the desire of their soul:
[4]thereforeI will take away their goods as a devouring moth, and as one who acts by a rigid rule in a day of visitation. Woe, woe, thy times of vengeance are come; now shall be their lamentations.
[5]Trustnot in friends, and confide not in guides: beware of thy wife, so as not to commit anything to her.
[6]Forthe son dishonours his father, the daughter will rise up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: those in his house shall be all a man's enemies.
[7]ButI will look to the Lord; I will wait upon God my Saviour: my God will hearken to me.
[8]Rejoicenot against me, mine enemy; for I have fallen yet shall arise; for though I should sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.
[9]Iwill bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he make good my cause: he also shall maintain my right, and shall bring me out to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
[10]Andshe that is mine enemy shall see it, and shall clothe herself with shame, who says, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall look upon her: now shall she be for trampling as mire in the ways.
[11]Itis the day of making of brick; that day shall be thine utter destruction, and that day shall utterly abolish thine ordinances.
[12]Andthy cities shall be levelled, and parted among the Assyrians; and thy strong cities shall be parted from Tyre to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
[13]Andthe land shall be utterly desolate together with them that inhabit it, because of the fruit of their doings.
[14]Tendthy people with thy rod, the sheep of thine inheritance, those that inhabit by themselves the thicket in the midst of Carmel: they shall feed in the land of Basan, and in the land of Galaad, as in the days of old.
[15]Andaccording to the days of thy departure out of Egypt shall ye see marvellous things.
[16]Thenations shall see and be ashamed; and at all their might they shall lay their hands upon their mouth, their ears shall be deafened.
[17]Theyshall lick the dust as serpents crawling on the earth, they shall be confounded in their holes; they shall be amazed at the Lord our God, and will be afraid of thee.
[18]Whois a God like thee, cancelling iniquities, and passing over the sins of the remnant of his inheritance? and he has not kept his anger for a testimony, for he delights in mercy.
[19]Hewill return and have mercy upon us; he will sink our iniquities, and they shall be cast into the depth of the sea, even all our sins.
[20]Heshall give blessings truly to Jacob, and mercy to Abraam, as thou swarest to our fathers, according to the former days.
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