1 Woe to me! For I am as gatherings of summer fruit, as gleanings of the grape harvest. There is no cluster to eat. My being has desired the first-ripe fruit.
2 The kind one has perished from the earth, and there is no one straight among men. All of them lie in wait for blood, everyone hunts his brother with a net.
3 Both hands are on the evil, to do it well. The prince asks for gifts, the judge seeks a bribe, and the great man speaks the desire of his being. And they weave it together.
4 The best of them is like a prickly plant, the most straight is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchman and your punishment has come, now is their confusion.
5 Trust no friend, rely on no companion, guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom.
6 For son is despising father, daughter rises up against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, the enemies of a man are the men of his own house.
7 As for me, I look to יהוה, I wait for the Elohim of my deliverance, my Elohim does hear me.
8 Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. When I have fallen I have risen, when I sit in darkness יהוה is a light to me.
9 I bear the displeasure of יהוה, for I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case, and shall execute right-ruling for me, until He brings me out into the light and I look on His righteousness.
10 And let my enemy see it, and let shame cover her who said to me, “Where is יהוה your Elohim?” Let my eyes look on her: now she is trampled down like mud in the streets.
11 The day for building your walls! Let the decree go far and wide in that day –
12 that day when they come to you from Ashshur and the besieged cities of Mitsrayim, and from the siege to the River, and from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain.
13 But the earth shall become a waste because of those who dwell in it, and for the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd Your people with Your rod, the flock of Your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest, in the midst of Karmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gil‛aḏ, as in days of old.
15 “As in the days when you came out of the land of Mitsrayim, I shall let him see wonders.”
16 Let the gentiles see and be ashamed of all their might, let them put their hand over their mouth, let their ears be deaf.
17 Let them lick the dust like a serpent, let them come trembling from their strongholds like snakes of the earth, let them be afraid of יהוה our Elohim and fear because of You.
18 Who is an Ěl like You – taking away crookedness and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? He shall not retain His wrath forever, for He Himself delights in kindness.
19 He shall turn back, He shall have compassion on us, He shall trample upon our crookednesses! And You throw all our sins into the depths of the sea!
20 You give truth to Ya‛aqoḇ, kindness to Aḇraham, which You swore to our fathers from the days of old!