The Message Bible MSG
English Standard Version ESV
1 I'm overwhelmed with sorrow! Sunk in a swamp of despair! I'm like someone who goes to the garden to pick cabbages and carrots and corn And returns empty-handed, finds nothing for soup or sandwich or salad.
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Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
2 There's not a decent person in sight. Right-living humans are extinct. They're all out for one another's blood, animals preying on each other.
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The 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 They've all become experts in evil. Corrupt leaders demand bribes. The powerful rich make sure they get what they want.
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Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together.
4 The best and brightest are thistles. The top of the line is crabgrass. But no longer: It's exam time. Look at them slinking away in disgrace!
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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 Don't trust your neighbor, don't confide in your friend. Watch your words, even with your spouse.
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Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms;
6 Neighborhoods and families are falling to pieces. The closer they are - sons, daughters, in-laws - The worse they can be. Your own family is the enemy.
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for the 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 me, I'm not giving up. I'm sticking around to see what God will do. I'm waiting for God to make things right. I'm counting on God to listen to me. Spreading Your Wings
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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 Don't, enemy, crow over me. I'm down, but I'm not out. I'm sitting in the dark right now, but God is my light.
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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 can take God's punishing rage. I deserve it - I sinned. But it's not forever. He's on my side and is going to get me out of this. He'll turn on the lights and show me his ways. I'll see the whole picture and how right he is.
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I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.
10 And my enemy will see it, too, and be discredited - yes, disgraced! This enemy who kept taunting, "So where is this God of yours?" I'm going to see it with these, my own eyes - my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter.
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Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “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 Oh, that will be a day! A day for rebuilding your city, a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings!
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A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
12 All your dispersed and scattered people will come back, old friends and family from faraway places, From Assyria in the east to Egypt in the west, from across the seas and out of the mountains.
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In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 But there'll be a reversal for everyone else - massive depopulation - because of the way they lived, the things they did.
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But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
14 Shepherd, O God, your people with your staff, your dear and precious flock. Uniquely yours in a grove of trees, centered in lotus land. Let them graze in lush Bashan as in the old days in green Gilead.
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Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land; let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.
15 Reproduce the miracle-wonders of our exodus from Egypt.
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As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.
16 And the godless nations: Put them in their place - humiliated in their arrogance, speechless and clueless.
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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 Make them slink like snakes, crawl like cockroaches, come out of their holes from under their rocks And face our God. Fill them with holy fear and trembling.
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they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.
18 Where is the god who can compare with you - wiping the slate clean of guilt, Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, to the past sins of your purged and precious people? You don't nurse your anger and don't stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That's what you love most.
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Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.
19 And compassion is on its way to us. You'll stamp out our wrongdoing. You'll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean.
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He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
20 You'll stay true to your word to Father Jacob and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham - Everything you promised our ancestors from a long time ago.
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You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025