7:1   I feel so empty inside-- like someone starving for grapes or figs, after the vines and trees have all been picked clean.

7:2   No one is loyal to God; no one does right. Everyone is brutal and eager to deceive everyone else.

7:3   People cooperate to commit crime. Judges and leaders demand bribes, and rulers cheat in court.

7:4   The most honest of them is worse than a thorn patch. Your doom has come! Lookouts sound the warning, and everyone panics.

7:5   Don't trust anyone, not even your best friend, and be careful what you say to the one you love.

7:6   Sons refuse to respect their own fathers, daughters rebel against their own mothers, and daughters-in-law despise their mothers-in-law. Your family is now your enemy.

7:7   But I trust the LORD God to save me, and I will wait for him to answer my prayer.

7:8   My enemies, don't be glad because of my troubles! I may have fallen, but I will get up; I may be sitting in the dark, but the LORD is my light.

7:9   I have sinned against the LORD. And so I must endure his anger, until he comes to my defense. But I know that I will see him making things right for me and leading me to the light.

7:10   You, my enemies, said, "The LORD God is helpless." Now each of you will be disgraced and put to shame. I will see you trampled like mud in the street.

7:11   Towns of Judah, the day is coming when your walls will be rebuilt, and your boundaries enlarged.

7:12   People will flock to you from Assyria and Egypt, from Babylonia and everywhere else.

7:13   Those nations will suffer disaster because of what they did.

7:14   Lead your people, LORD! Come and be our shepherd. Grasslands surround us, but we live in a forest. So lead us to Bashan and Gilead, and let us find pasture as we did long ago.

7:15   I, the LORD, will work miracles just as I did when I led you out of Egypt.

7:16   Nations will see this and be ashamed because of their helpless armies. They will be in shock, unable to speak or hear,

7:17   because of their fear of me, your LORD and God. Then they will come trembling, crawling out of their fortresses like insects or snakes, lapping up the dust.

7:18   Our God, no one is like you. We are all that is left of your chosen people, and you freely forgive our sin and guilt. You don't stay angry forever; you're glad to have pity

7:19   and pleased to be merciful. You will trample on our sins and throw them in the sea.

7:20   You will keep your word and be faithful to Jacob and to Abraham, as you promised our ancestors many years ago.