1. Alas for 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. For the 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. they prepare their hands for mischief, the prince asks a reward, and the judge speaks flattering words; it is the desire of their soul:
4. therefore I will take away their goods as a devouring moth, and as one who [Gr. goes upon, etc.] acts by a rigid rule in a day of [Lit. watching] visitation. Woe, woe, thy times of vengeance are come; now shall be their lamentations.
5. Trust not in friends, and confide not in guides: beware of thy wife, so as not to commit anything to her.
6. For the 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. But I will look to the Lord; I will wait upon God my Saviour: my God will hearken to me.
8. Rejoice not 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. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he make good my cause: he also shall [Or, execute my judgement] maintain my right, and shall bring me out to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
10. And she 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. It is the day of [Or, plastering, or anointing] making of brick; that day shall be thine utter destruction, and that day shall utterly abolish thine ordinances.
12. And thy 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. And the land shall be utterly desolate together with them that inhabit it, because of the fruit of their doings.
14. Tend thy 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. And according to the days of thy departure out of Egypt shall ye see marvellous things.
16. The nations shall see and be ashamed; and at all their might they shall lay their hands upon their mouth, their ears shall be deafened.
17. They shall lick the dust as serpents crawling on the earth, they shall be confounded in their [Gr. confinement] holes; they shall be amazed at the Lord our God, and will be afraid of thee.
18. Who is 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. He will 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. He shall give blessings truly to Jacob, and mercy to Abraam, as thou swarest to our fathers, according to the former days.