(Matthew 10:34–39; Luke 12:49–53)

¹ Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.

² The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.

³ Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

⁴ The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation.¹ Now is the time of their confusion.

1. Or your punishment

⁵ Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.¹

1. Hebrew in your bosom

Israel’s Confession and Comfort

⁶ For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the members of his own household.¹

1. Cited in Matthew 10:35–36; see also Luke 12:53.

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 Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.

⁹ Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the rage of the LORD, until He argues my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His righteousness.

¹⁰ Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame— she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

¹¹ The day for rebuilding your walls will come— the day for extending your boundary.

¹² On that day they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates,¹ from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

1. Hebrew the River

God’s Compassion on Israel

¹³ Then the earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the fruit of their deeds.

¹⁴ Shepherd with Your staff Your people, the flock of Your inheritance. They live alone in a woodland, surrounded by pastures.¹ Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

1. Or in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel

¹⁵ As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show My wonders.

¹⁶ Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.

¹⁷ They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will crawl from their holes in the presence of the LORD our God; they will tremble in fear of You.

¹⁸ Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance— who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?¹

1. Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.

¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.