I go about blackened, ¹  but not by the sun; in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.

If ¹  I have walked in falsehood, and if ²  my foot has hastened ³  to deceit –

By David. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have integrity, ²  and I trust in the Lord without wavering.

I am dazed ¹  and completely humiliated; ²  all day long I walk around mourning.

Let us go up at once ¹  to Bethel. Then I will make ²  an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress ³  and has been with me wherever I went.” ⁴ 

I left here full, ¹  but the Lord has caused me to return empty-handed. ²  Why do you call me ‘Naomi,’ seeing that ³  the Lord has opposed me, ⁴  and the Sovereign One ⁵  has caused me to suffer?” ⁶ 

He said, “Why do you want to go see him today? It is not the new moon ¹  or the Sabbath.” She said, “Everything’s fine.” ² 

A song of ascents, ²  by David. O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor do I have a haughty look. ³  I do not have great aspirations, or concern myself with things that are beyond me. ⁴ 

“How can you say, ‘I have not made myself unclean. I have not paid allegiance to ¹  the gods called Baal.’ Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! ²  Think about the things you have done there! You are like a flighty, young female camel that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path. ³ 

I will say, ¹  ‘My dear children of Israel, ²  keep in mind the road you took when you were carried off. ³  Mark off in your minds the landmarks. Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back. Return, my dear children of Israel. Return to these cities of yours.

The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing, for up to this point I had not told any of the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or the rest of the workers.