12:1 Lord, you have always been fair
whenever I have complained to you. 1
However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. 2
Why are wicked people successful? 3
Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?
12:6 As a matter of fact, 4 even your own brothers
and the members of your own family have betrayed you too.
Even they have plotted to do away with you. 5
So do not trust them even when they say kind things 6 to you.
5:7 They have committed treason 7 against the Lord,
because they bore illegitimate children.
Soon 8 the new moon festival will devour them and their fields.
6:7 At Adam 9 they broke 10 the covenant;
Oh how 11 they were unfaithful 12 to me!
7:2 Faithful men have disappeared 13 from the land;
there are no godly men left. 14
They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; 15
they hunt their own brother with a net. 16
7:3 They are determined to be experts at doing evil; 17
government officials and judges take bribes, 18
prominent men make demands,
and they all do what is necessary to satisfy them. 19
7:4 The best of them is like a thorn;
the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. 20
The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen –
your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, 21
and then you will experience confusion. 22
7:5 Do not rely on a friend;
do not trust a companion!
Don’t even share secrets with the one who lies in your arms! 23
3:4 Her prophets are proud; 24
they are deceitful men.
Her priests defile what is holy; 25
they break God’s laws. 26