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7. Israel's Misery and Rising

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,
   I wait for God my Savior;
   my God will hear me.

Israel Will Rise

    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.
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.
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.

    ¹¹ The day for building your walls will come,
   the day for extending your boundaries.
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.
¹³ The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants,
   as the result of their deeds.

Prayer and Praise

    ¹⁴ Shepherd your people with your staff,
   the flock of your inheritance,
which lives by itself in a forest,
   in fertile pasturelands. Or in the middle of Carmel
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
   as in days long ago.

¹⁵ “As in the days when you came out of Egypt,
I will show them my wonders.”

    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.
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.
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.
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.
²⁰ You will be faithful to Jacob,
   and show love to Abraham,
as you pledged on oath to our ancestors
   in days long ago.

In the second verse he expresses more clearly his mind, Perished, he says, has the righteous ¹⁸²¹⁸² Justus, rendered in the text humanus, vel, mansuetus The Hebrew is חסיר, rendered by the Septuagint “ευσβης—godly, pious,”—by Marckius, “benignus — kind, benignant,” — by Newcome, “the good man,” — and by Henderson, “the pious.” It is sometimes rendered holy; but its meaning is, kind, benevolent, merciful, actively good, beneficent. In Psalm 12:1, it is rendered “godly,” and in Isaiah 57:1, “merciful.” — Ed. from the land, and there is none upright ¹⁸³¹⁸³ Rectus, ישר, rendered by the Septuagint, “κατορθων—one going straight to an object,”—by Newcome and Henderson, “upright.” It is one who proceeds in a straight course according to the rule of the law, without making any windings or turning aside into any devious path. — Ed. among men. Here now he does not personify the land. It was indeed a forcible and an emphatic language, when he complained at the beginning, that he groaned as though the land was ashamed of its dearth: but the Prophet now performs the office of a teacher, Perished, he says, has the righteous from the land; there is no one upright among men; all lay in wait for blood; every one hunts his brother as with a net In this verse the Prophet briefly shows, that all were full both of cruelty and perfidy, that there was no care for justice; as though he said, In vain are good men sought among this people; for they are all bloody, they are all fraudulent. When he says, that they all did lay in wait for blood, he no doubt intended to set forth their cruelty, as though he had said, that they were thirsting for blood. But when he adds, that each did lay in wait for their brethren, he alludes to their frauds or to their perfidy.

We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet: and the manner he adopts is more emphatical than if God, in his own name, had pronounced the words: for, as men were fixed, and as though drowned, in their own carelessness, the Prophet introduces here the land as speaking, which accuses its own children, and confesses its own guilt; yea, it anticipates God’s judgment, and acknowledges itself to be contaminated by its own inhabitants, so that nothing pure remained in it. It follows —