where then is my hope? And my hope, who sees it?

The eye of him who sees me now will see me no more; your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

People who had seen him will not see him again, and the place where he was will recognize him no longer.

“For God speaks, the first time in one way, the second time in another, though a person does not perceive it.

Gaze at the heavens and see; consider the clouds, which are higher than you!

Surely it is an empty cry – God does not hear it; the Almighty does not take notice of it.

So I will pounce on them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight, thinking, ‘No eye can see me,’ and covers his face with a mask.

That person sings to others, saying: ‘I have sinned and falsified what is right, but I was not punished according to what I deserved.

How much less, then, when you say that you do not perceive him, that the case is before him and you are waiting for him!

“Indeed, there are wicked scoundrels among my people. They lie in wait like bird catchers hiding in ambush. They set deadly traps to catch people.

For from the top of the rocks I see them; from the hills I watch them. Indeed, a nation that lives alone, and it will not be reckoned among the nations.

But if God is quiet, who can condemn him? If he hides his face, then who can see him? Yet he is over the individual and the nation alike,

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Descend from the crest of Amana, from the top of Senir, the summit of Hermon, from the lions’ dens and the mountain haunts of the leopards.

O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like a luxuriant cypress tree; your fruitfulness comes from me!

‘I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not close at hand. A star will march forth out of Jacob, and a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab, and the heads of all the sons of Sheth.