For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.
Have you utterly rejected Judah? Does your soul loathe Zion? Why have you struck us down so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us.
I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.
But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came.
When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out.
She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
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