1  ^lAh, you destroyer,

who yourself have not been destroyed,

you traitor,

whom none has betrayed!

When you have ceased to destroy,

you will be destroyed;

and when you have finished betraying,

they will betray you.

2  O Lord, be gracious to us; ^mwe wait for you.

Be our arm every morning,

our salvation in the time of trouble.

3  ⁿAt the tumultuous noise peoples flee;

when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,

4  and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;

^oas locusts leap, it is leapt upon.

5  ^pThe Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;

he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,

6  ^qand he will be the stability of your times,

abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;

the fear of the Lord is Zion’s¹ treasure.

7  Behold, their heroes cry in the streets;

^rthe envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8  ^sThe highways lie waste;

the traveler ceases.

^tCovenants are broken;

cities² are despised;

there is no regard for man.

9  ^uThe land mourns and languishes;

Lebanon is confounded and withers away;

Sharon is like a desert,

and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

10  ^v“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,

“now I will lift myself up;

now I will be exalted.

11  ^wYou conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;

your breath is ^xa fire that will consume you.

12  And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,

^xlike thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

13  Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;

and you who are near, acknowledge my might.

14  The sinners in Zion are afraid;

trembling has seized the godless:

^y“Who among us can dwell ^zwith the consuming fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

15  ^aHe who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,

who despises the gain of oppressions,

who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,

who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed

^band shuts his eyes from looking on evil,

16  he will dwell on the heights;

his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;

^chis bread will be given him; his water will be sure.

17  ^dYour eyes will behold the king in his beauty;

^ethey will see a land that stretches afar.

18  ^fYour heart will muse on the terror:

“Where is he who counted, where is ^ghe who weighed the tribute?

Where is ^hhe who counted the towers?”

19  ⁱYou will see no more the insolent people,

the people ^jof an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend,

stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.

20  Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts!

^kYour eyes will see Jerusalem,

an untroubled habitation, an ^limmovable tent,

whose stakes will never be plucked up,

nor will any of its cords be broken.

21  But there the Lord in majesty will be for us

a place of ^mbroad rivers and streams,

ⁿwhere no galley with oars can go,

nor majestic ship can pass.

22  For the Lord is our ^ojudge; the Lord is our ^plawgiver;

the Lord is our ^qking; he will save us.

23  Your cords hang loose;

they cannot hold the mast firm in its place

or keep the sail spread out.

^rThen prey and spoil in abundance will be divided;

even ^sthe lame will take the prey.

24  And no inhabitant will say, ^t“I am sick”;

^uthe people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

1  Draw near, ^vO nations, to hear,

and give attention, O peoples!

Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;

the world, and all that comes from it.

2  For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,

and furious against all their host;

he has ^wdevoted them to destruction,¹ has given them over for slaughter.

3  Their slain shall be cast out,

and ^xthe stench of their corpses shall rise;

^ythe mountains shall flow with their blood.

4  ^zAll the host of heaven shall rot away,

and the skies roll up like a scroll.

All their host shall fall,

as leaves fall from the vine,

like leaves falling from the fig tree.

5  For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;

behold, it descends for judgment upon ^aEdom,

upon the people ^bI have devoted to destruction.

6  The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood;

it is gorged with fat,

with the blood of lambs and goats,

with the fat of the kidneys of rams.

^cFor the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,

a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7  ^dWild oxen shall ^efall with them,

and ^fyoung steers with ^fthe mighty bulls.

Their land shall drink its fill of blood,

and their soil shall be gorged with fat.

8  ^gFor the Lord has a day of vengeance,

a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

9  ^hAnd the streams of Edom² shall be turned into pitch,

and her soil into sulfur;

her land shall become burning pitch.

10  Night and day ⁱit shall not be quenched;

^jits smoke shall go up forever.

^kFrom generation to generation it shall lie waste;

none shall pass through it forever and ever.

11  ^lBut the hawk and the porcupine³ shall possess it,

the owl and the raven shall dwell in it.

^mHe shall stretch the line of ⁿconfusion⁴ over it,

and the plumb line of emptiness.

12  Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom,

and all its princes shall be nothing.

13  ^oThorns shall grow over its strongholds,

nettles and thistles in its fortresses.

It shall be the haunt of ^pjackals,

an abode for ostriches.⁵

14  ^qAnd wild animals shall meet with hyenas;

the wild goat shall cry to his fellow;

indeed, there the night bird⁶ settles

and finds for herself a resting place.

15  There the owl nests and lays

and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow;

indeed, there ^rthe hawks are gathered,

each one with her mate.

16  Seek and read from the book of the Lord:

Not one of these shall be missing;

none shall be without her mate.

For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,

and his Spirit has gathered them.

17  ^sHe has cast the lot for them;

his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;

they shall possess it forever;

from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

1  ^tThe wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;

^uthe desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;

2  it shall blossom abundantly

and rejoice with joy and singing.

^vThe glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of ^wCarmel and ^xSharon.

^yThey shall see the glory of the Lord,

the majesty of our God.

3  ^zStrengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees.

4  Say to those who have an anxious heart,

“Be strong; fear not!

^aBehold, your God

will come with vengeance,

with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.”

5  ^bThen the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

6  ^bthen shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

^cFor waters break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

7  ^dthe burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water;

in the haunt of ^ejackals, where they lie down,

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8  ^fAnd a highway shall be there,

and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;

^gthe unclean shall not pass over it.

It shall belong to those who walk on the way;

even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.¹

9  No lion shall be there,

nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there,

but the redeemed shall walk there.

10  ^hAnd the ransomed of the Lord shall return

and come to Zion with singing;

ⁱeverlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain gladness and joy,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.