7:1 What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave.
7:2 The faithful have been swept from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets.
7:3 Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire - they all conspire together.
7:4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day God visits you has come, the day your watchmen sound the alarm. Now is the time of your confusion.
7:5 Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace guard the words of your lips.
7:6 For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.
7:7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.
7:9 Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the Lord’s wrath, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.
7:10 Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, she who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will see her downfall; even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets.
7:11 The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.
7:12 In that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
7:13 The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.
7:14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands.* Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. / *Or in the middle of Carmel
7:15 “As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders.”
7:16 Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will put their hands over their mouths and their ears will become deaf.
7:17 They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the Lord our God and will be afraid of you.
7:18 Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.
7:19 You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
7:20 You will be faithful to Jacob, and show love to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago.