7  Woe is me! For I have become

as when the summer fruit has been gathered,

as when the grapes have been gleaned:

^lthere is no cluster to eat,

no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.

2  ^mThe godly has perished from the earth,

and there is no one upright among mankind;

they all lie in wait for blood,

and each hunts the other with a net.

3  Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;

the prince and the judge ask for a ⁿbribe,

and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;

thus they weave it together.

4  The best of them is like a brier,

the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;

now their confusion is at hand.

5  ^oPut no trust in a neighbor;

have no confidence in a friend;

guard the doors of your mouth

from her who lies in your arms;¹

6  for ^pthe son treats the father with contempt,

the daughter rises up against her mother,

the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

7  But as for me, I will look to the Lord;

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

my God will hear me.

8  Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the Lord will be a light to me.

9  I will bear the indignation of the Lord

because I have sinned against him,

until he ^qpleads my cause

and executes judgment for me.

He will bring me out to the light;

I shall look upon his vindication.

10  Then my enemy will see,

and shame will cover her who said to me,

^r“Where is the Lord your God?”

My eyes will look upon her;

now she will be trampled down

like the mire of the streets.

11  A day for the building of your walls!

In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

12  In that day they² will come to you,

^sfrom Assyria and the cities of Egypt,

and from Egypt to the River,³

from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

13  But the earth will be desolate

because of its inhabitants,

for the fruit of their deeds.

14  ^tShepherd your people with your staff,

the flock of your inheritance,

who dwell alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;⁴

^ulet them graze in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

15  As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

I will show them⁵ marvelous things.

16  The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

their ears shall be deaf;

17  they shall ^vlick the dust like a serpent,

like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall ^wcome trembling out of their strongholds;

they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,

and they shall be in fear of you.

18  ^xWho is a God like you, ^ypardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the ^zremnant of his inheritance?

^aHe does not retain his anger forever,

because he delights in steadfast love.

19  He will again have compassion on us;

he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

You will ^bcast all our⁶ sins

into the depths of the sea.

20  You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and steadfast love to Abraham,

^cas you have sworn to our fathers

from the days of old.

2  The Lord is a ^djealous and ^eavenging God;

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and keeps wrath for his enemies.

3  The Lord is ^fslow to anger and great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm,

and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4  He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;

he dries up all the rivers;

^gBashan and Carmel wither;

the bloom of Lebanon withers.

5  The mountains quake before him;

^hthe hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who dwell in it.

6  Who can stand before his indignation?

Who can endure the heat of his anger?

ⁱHis wrath is poured out like fire,

and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

7  The Lord is good,

a ^jstronghold in the day of trouble;

^khe knows those who take refuge in him.

8  But with an overflowing flood

he will make a complete end of the adversaries,¹

and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

9  What do you plot against the Lord?

He will make a complete end;

trouble will not rise up a second time.

10  For they are like entangled thorns,

like drunkards as they drink;

they are consumed like stubble fully dried.

11  From you came one

who plotted evil against the Lord,

a worthless counselor.

12  Thus says the Lord,

“Though they are at full strength and many,

they will be cut down and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.

13  And now ^lI will break his yoke from off you

and will ^mburst your bonds apart.”

14  The Lord has given commandment about you:

“No more shall your name be perpetuated;

from the house of your gods I will cut off

the carved image and the metal image.

I will make your ⁿgrave, for you are vile.”

15  ² Behold, ^oupon the mountains, ^pthe feet of him

who brings good news,

who publishes peace!

Keep your feasts, O Judah;

fulfill your vows,

for ^qnever again shall the worthless pass through you;

he is utterly cut off.

2  The scatterer has come up against you.

Man the ramparts;

watch the road;

dress for battle;¹

collect all your strength.

2  For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob

as the majesty of Israel,

for plunderers have plundered them

and ruined their branches.

3  The shield of his mighty men is red;

^rhis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.

The chariots come with flashing metal

on the day he musters them;

the cypress spears are brandished.

4  The chariots race madly through the streets;

they rush to and fro through the squares;

they gleam like torches;

they dart like lightning.

5  He remembers his officers;

they stumble as they go,

they hasten to the wall;

the siege tower² is set up.

6  The river ^sgates are opened;

the palace melts away;

7  its mistress³ is stripped;⁴ she is carried off,

her slave girls lamenting,

moaning ^tlike doves

and beating their breasts.

8  Nineveh is like a pool

whose waters run away.⁵

“Halt! Halt!” they cry,

but none turns back.

9  Plunder the silver,

plunder the gold!

There is no end of the treasure

or of the wealth of all precious things.

10  Desolate! Desolation and ruin!

^uHearts melt and knees tremble;

anguish is in all loins;

^vall faces grow pale!

11  Where is the lions’ den,

the feeding place of the young lions,

where the lion and lioness went,

where his cubs were, with none to disturb?

12  The lion tore enough for his cubs

and strangled prey for his lionesses;

he filled his caves with prey

and his dens with torn flesh.

3  Woe to the ^xbloody city,

all full of lies and plunder—

no end to the prey!

2  The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,

galloping horse and bounding chariot!

3  Horsemen charging,

flashing sword and ^yglittering spear,

hosts of slain,

heaps of corpses,

dead bodies without end—

they stumble over the bodies!

4  And all for the countless whorings of the ^zprostitute,

graceful and of deadly ^acharms,

who betrays nations with her whorings,

and peoples with her charms.

5  ^bBehold, I am against you,

declares the Lord of hosts,

and will ^clift up your skirts over your face;

and I will make nations look at your nakedness

and kingdoms at your shame.

6  I will throw filth at you

and treat you with contempt

and make you a spectacle.

7  And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,

“Wasted is Nineveh; ^dwho will grieve for her?”

Where shall I seek comforters for you?

8  ^eAre you better than ^fThebes¹

that sat by the Nile,

with water around her,

her rampart a sea,

and water her wall?

9  Cush was her strength;

Egypt too, and that without limit;

Put and the Libyans were her² helpers.

10  Yet ^gshe became an exile;

she went into captivity;

^hher infants were dashed in pieces

at the head of every street;

for her honored men ⁱlots were cast,

and all her great men were bound in chains.

11  You also will be drunken;

you will go into hiding;

you will seek a refuge from the enemy.

12  All your fortresses are like fig trees

with ^jfirst-ripe figs—

if shaken they fall

into the mouth of the eater.

13  Behold, your troops

are ^kwomen in your midst.

The ^lgates of your land

are wide open to your enemies;

fire has devoured your bars.

14  Draw water for the siege;

strengthen your forts;

go into the clay;

tread the mortar;

take hold of the brick mold!

15  There will the fire devour you;

the sword will cut you off.

It will devour you like the locust.

Multiply yourselves like the locust;

multiply like the grasshopper!

16  You increased your merchants

more than the stars of the heavens.

The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

17  Your princes³ are like grasshoppers,

your scribes⁴ like clouds of locusts

settling on the fences

in a day of cold—

when the sun rises, they fly away;

no one knows where they are.

18  Your shepherds are asleep,

O king of Assyria;

your nobles slumber.

^mYour people are scattered on the mountains

with none to gather them.

19  There is no easing your hurt;

ⁿyour wound is grievous.

All who hear the news about you

^oclap their hands over you.

For upon whom has not come

your unceasing evil?

2  O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

and you will not hear?

Or cry to you “Violence!”

and you will not save?

3  Why do you make me see iniquity,

and why do you idly look at wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

strife and contention arise.

4  So the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked surround the righteous;

so justice goes forth perverted.

5  ^c“Look among the nations, and see;

wonder and be astounded.

For ^dI am doing a work in your days

that you would not believe if told.

6  For behold, I am raising up the ^eChaldeans,

that bitter and hasty nation,

who march through the breadth of the earth,

to seize dwellings not their own.

7  They are dreaded and fearsome;

their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

8  Their ^fhorses are swifter than leopards,

more fierce than the evening wolves;

their horsemen press proudly on.

Their horsemen come from afar;

they fly like an ^geagle swift to devour.

9  They all come for violence,

all their faces forward.

They gather captives like sand.

10  At kings they scoff,

and at rulers they laugh.

They laugh at every fortress,

for they pile up earth and take it.

11  Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,

guilty men, whose own might is their god!”

12  Are you not ^hfrom everlasting,

O Lord my God, my Holy One?

We shall not die.

O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,

and you, O ⁱRock, have established them for reproof.

13  You who are of purer eyes than to see evil

and cannot look at wrong,

^jwhy do you idly look at traitors

and remain silent when the wicked swallows up

the man more righteous than he?

14  You make mankind like the fish of the sea,

like crawling things that have no ruler.

15  ^kHe¹ brings all of them up with a hook;

he drags them out with his net;

he gathers them in his dragnet;

so he rejoices and is glad.

16  Therefore he sacrifices to his net

and makes offerings to his dragnet;

for by them he lives in luxury,²

and his food is rich.

17  Is he then to keep on emptying his net

and mercilessly killing nations forever?