1  I ^uwaited patiently for the Lord;

he inclined to me and ^vheard my cry.

2  He drew me up from ^wthe pit of destruction,

out of ^xthe miry bog,

and ^yset my feet upon a rock,

^zmaking my steps secure.

3  He put ^aa new song in my mouth,

a song of praise to our God.

Many will ^bsee and fear,

and put their trust in the Lord.

4  Blessed is the man who ^cmakes

the Lord his trust,

who does not turn to the proud,

to those who ^dgo astray after a lie!

5  You have multiplied, O Lord my God,

your ^ewondrous deeds and your ^fthoughts toward us;

none can compare with you!

I will proclaim and tell of them,

yet they are ^gmore than can be told.

6  ^hIn sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,

but you have given me an open ⁱear.¹

Burnt offering and sin offering

you have not required.

7  Then I said, “Behold, I have come;

in the scroll of the book it is written ^jof me:

8  ^kI delight to do your will, O my God;

your law is ^lwithin my heart.”

9  I have told the glad news of deliverance²

in ^mthe great congregation;

behold, I have not ⁿrestrained my lips,

^oas you know, O Lord.

10  I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;

I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness

from the great congregation.

11  As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain

your mercy from me;

your ^psteadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

12  For evils have ^qencompassed me

beyond number;

my ^riniquities have overtaken me,

and I cannot ^ssee;

they are ^tmore than the hairs of my head;

my heart ^ufails me.

13  ^vBe pleased, O Lord, to ^wdeliver me!

O Lord, ^xmake haste to help me!

14  ^yLet those be put to shame and disappointed altogether

who seek to snatch away my life;

let those be ^zturned back and brought to dishonor

who delight in my hurt!

15  Let those be appalled because of their shame

who ^asay to me, “Aha, Aha!”

16  But may all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you;

may those who love your salvation

^bsay continually, “Great is the Lord!”

17  As for me, I am ^cpoor and needy,

but ^dthe Lord takes thought for me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

do not delay, O my God!

2  “Plead with your mother, plead—

for ^zshe is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away ^aher whoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

3  lest ^bI strip her naked

and make her as ^cin the day she was born,

and ^dmake her like a wilderness,

and make her like a parched land,

and kill her with thirst.

4  ^eUpon her children also I will have no mercy,

^fbecause they are children of whoredom.

5  For ^gtheir mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For ^hshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who ⁱgive me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

6  Therefore ^jI will hedge up her⁴ way with thorns,

and ^kI will build a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

7  She shall pursue her lovers

but not overtake them,

and she shall seek them

but shall not find them.

^lThen she shall say,

‘I will go and return to ^mmy first husband,

^lfor it was better for me then than now.’

8  And ⁿshe did not know

that it was ^oI who gave her

^pthe grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on ^qher silver and gold,

^rwhich they used for Baal.

9  Therefore ^sI will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and ^sI will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

10  Now ^tI will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

11  ^uAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,

her feasts, her ^vnew moons, her ^vSabbaths,

and all her ^wappointed feasts.

12  And ^xI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

^yof which she said,

‘These are ^zmy wages,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

^aand the beasts of the field shall devour them.

13  And ^bI will punish her for ^cthe feast days of the Baals

when she burned offerings to them

and ^dadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers

and forgot me, declares the Lord.

14  “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and ^ebring her into the wilderness,

and ^fspeak tenderly to her.

15  And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor⁵ a door of hope.

And there she shall answer ^gas in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

21  “And ^pin that day ^qI will answer, declares the Lord,

I will answer the heavens,

and they shall answer the earth,

22  and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer ^rJezreel,⁷

23  and ^sI will sow her for myself in the land.

And ^tI ^uwill have mercy on No Mercy,⁸

and ^vI will say to Not My People,^{9 w}‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”