³ Evildoers are naturally offensive, wayward at birth!
    They were born telling lies and willfully wandering from the truth.
⁴ Their bite is painful; their venom is like the deadly poison of a snake;
    they are like a cobra that closes up its ears
⁵ To escape the voice of the charmers,
    no matter how enchanting the spells may be.

⁶ O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths!
    Render the young lions harmless; break out their fangs, O Eternal One.
⁷ Let them run off like the waters of a flood,
    and though they aim their arrows, let them fly without their heads.
⁸ Let them melt like a snail that oozes along;
    may they be like a stillborn that never catches its first breath, never sees the sun.
⁹ Before your cook pots know the furious flame of a fire of thorns—
    whether green or burning—He will blow the wicked away.

¹⁰ Cheers will rise as the right-living watch Him settle the score,
    their feet washed in the blood after the onslaught of the wicked.
¹¹ And it will be heard, “Those who seek justice will be rewarded.
    Indeed, there is a God who brings justice to the earth!”

²     Look up to the hilltops. Take a good look.
        Is there anywhere you have not committed perverse acts in the company of other gods?
    You sat on the side of the road, offering yourself to lovers;
        like a desert nomad you waited, patiently.
    Even the land itself is tainted by your prostitution and wickedness.

³     That is why I have held back the rain,
        why the spring rains have not come.
    But you still look and act the part of a prostitute—
        unfazed, unashamed.
⁴     But wait, did you just now call out to Me, saying,
        “My Father, You have been my friend, my confidant since I was young”?
⁵     You ask, “Surely He won’t be angry forever, will He?
        Surely He won’t hold this against us to the end, right?”
    This is how you talk—as if all I want are your words;
        meanwhile you continue in your selfish and evil ways.

    “Return to Me, faithless Israel.
        I will look on you with mercy, not anger.
        I will not hold this grudge against you forever.
¹³     Just admit what you did—your sin against Me.
        How you rebelled against the Eternal your God.
    How you gave yourself away to these foreign gods in the open, under the trees!
        How you disobeyed My voice.
¹⁴     Come back home, My restless, faithless ones,
        for I am your master, your husband (not that other god),
    And I will take you in—one from this city, two from that clan;
        I will bring you home to Zion.