The leaders of this nation were misleading people, and the people being led were destroyed. ¹ 

¹ All your leaders ran away together – they fled to a distant place; all your refugees ²  were captured together – they were captured without a single arrow being shot. ³ 

“Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, ¹  who seek the Lord! Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry ²  from which you were dug! ³ 

We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹  We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; people to populate the world are not born. ² 

Your very best valleys were full of chariots; ¹  horsemen confidently took their positions ²  at the gate.

You did not hear, you do not know, you were not told beforehand. ¹  For I know that you are very deceitful; ²  you were labeled ³  a rebel from birth.

They devoured ¹  on the right, but were still hungry, they ate on the left, but were not satisfied. People even ate ²  the flesh of their own arm! ³ 

I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, ¹  whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s ²  or Samaria’s.

For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and you will not be redeemed for money.”

We existed from ancient times, ¹  but you did not rule over them, they were not your subjects. ² 

(just as many were horrified by the sight of you) ¹  he was so disfigured ²  he no longer looked like a man; ³ 

They were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, “Don’t respond to him.”

But you were brought down ¹  to Sheol, to the remote slopes of the pit. ² 

Were the nations whom my predecessors ¹  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ² 

Your plunder ¹  disappears as if locusts were eating it; ²  they swarm over it like locusts! ³ 

At that time ¹  you will say: “I praise you, O Lord, for even though you were angry with me, your anger subsided, and you consoled me.

I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud, the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. ¹  Come back to me, for I protect ²  you.”

As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver and strains and cries out because of her labor pains, so were we because of you, O Lord.

When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, ¹  and from the hard labor which you were made to perform,

Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and humiliated; your adversaries ¹  will be reduced to nothing ²  and perish.