^d“The Lord is my helper;

^eI will not fear;

what can man do to me?”

The man declares, I am weary, O God;

I am weary, O God, and worn out.²

2  Surely I am too ^mstupid to be a man.

I have not the understanding of a man.

3  I have not learned wisdom,

nor have I knowledge of ⁿthe Holy One.

4  Who has ^oascended to heaven and come down?

Who has ^pgathered the wind in his fists?

Who has ^qwrapped up the waters in a garment?

Who has established all ^rthe ends of the earth?

^sWhat is his name, and what is his son’s name?

Surely you know!

5  ^tEvery word of God proves true;

he is ^ua shield to those who take refuge in him.

6  ^vDo not add to his words,

lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

7  Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me ^wbefore I die:

8  Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is ^xneedful for me,

9  lest I be ^yfull and ^zdeny you

and say, ^a“Who is the Lord?”

or lest I be poor and steal

^band profane the name of my God.

10  ^cDo not slander a servant to his master,

^dlest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

11  There are those³ who ^ecurse their fathers

and do not bless their mothers.

12  There are those who are ^fclean in their own eyes

but are not washed of their filth.

13  There are those—how ^glofty are their eyes,

how high their eyelids lift!

14  There are those whose teeth are ^hswords,

whose ⁱfangs are knives,

to ^jdevour the poor from off the earth,

the needy from among mankind.

15  The leech has two daughters:

Give and Give.⁴

^kThree things are never satisfied;

^kfour never say, “Enough”:

16  ^lSheol, ^mthe barren womb,

the land never satisfied with water,

and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

17  The eye that ⁿmocks a father

and ^oscorns to obey a mother

will ^pbe picked out by ^qthe ravens of the valley

and eaten by the vultures.

18  ^kThree things are ^rtoo wonderful for me;

^kfour I do not understand:

19  the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a serpent on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a virgin.

20  This is the way of an adulteress:

she eats and wipes her mouth

and says, “I have done no wrong.”

21  Under ^kthree things ^sthe earth trembles;

under ^kfour it cannot bear up:

22  ^ta slave when he becomes king,

and a fool when he is ^ufilled with food;

23  ^van unloved woman when she ^wgets a husband,

and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

24  ^kFour things on earth are small,

but they are exceedingly wise:

25  ^xthe ants are a people not strong,

yet they provide their food in the summer;

26  ^ythe rock badgers are a people not mighty,

yet they make their homes in the cliffs;

27  the locusts have no ^zking,

yet all of them march in ^arank;

28  the lizard you can take in your hands,

yet it is in kings’ palaces.

29  ^bThree things are stately in their tread;

^bfour are stately in their stride:

30  the lion, which is mightiest among beasts

and ^cdoes not turn back before any;

31  the ^dstrutting rooster,⁵ the he-goat,

and a king whose army is with him.⁶

32  If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,

or if you have been devising evil,

^eput your hand on your mouth.

33  For pressing milk produces curds,

pressing the nose produces blood,

and pressing anger produces strife.

1  ^oFor Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet,

^puntil her righteousness goes forth as brightness,

and her salvation as a burning torch.

2  ^qThe nations shall see your righteousness,

and all the kings your glory,

^rand you shall be called by a new name

that the mouth of the Lord will give.

3  You shall be ^sa crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,

and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

4  ^tYou shall no more be termed ^uForsaken,¹

and your land shall no more be termed Desolate,²

^rbut you shall be called ^vMy Delight Is in Her,³

and your land Married;⁴

for the Lord delights in you,

and your land shall be married.

5  For as a young man marries a young woman,

so ^wshall your sons marry you,

and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

so ^xshall your God rejoice over you.

6  On your walls, O Jerusalem,

I have set ^ywatchmen;

all the day and all the night

they shall never be silent.

You who put the Lord in remembrance,

take no rest,

7  and give him no rest

until he establishes Jerusalem

and makes it ^za praise in the earth.

8  The Lord has sworn ^aby his right hand

and by his mighty arm:

“I will not again give ^byour grain

to be food for your enemies,

^cand foreigners shall not drink your wine

for which you have labored;

9  but ^dthose who garner it shall eat it

and praise the Lord,

and ^dthose who gather it shall drink it

in the courts of my sanctuary.”⁵

10  Go through, go through the gates;

^eprepare the way for the people;

^fbuild up, build up the highway;

clear it of stones;

^glift up a signal over the peoples.

11  Behold, the Lord has proclaimed

to the end of the earth:

^hSay to the daughter of Zion,

ⁱ“Behold, your salvation comes;

behold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.”

12  ^jAnd they shall be called The Holy People,

The Redeemed of the Lord;

^kand you shall be called Sought Out,

A City Not Forsaken.

1  Who is this who comes from ^lEdom,

in crimsoned garments from ^lBozrah,

he who is splendid in his apparel,

^mmarching in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, speaking in righteousness,

mighty to save.”

2  Why is your ⁿapparel red,

and your garments like his ^owho treads in the winepress?

3  ^p“I have trodden the winepress alone,

^qand from the peoples no one was with me;

I trod them in my anger

and trampled them in my wrath;

their lifeblood⁶ spattered on my garments,

and stained all my apparel.

4  ^rFor the day of vengeance was in my heart,

and my year of redemption⁷ had come.

5  I looked, but ^sthere was no one to help;

I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold;

so my own arm brought me salvation,

and my wrath upheld me.

6  I trampled down the peoples in my anger;

^tI made them drunk in my wrath,

and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

7  I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord,

the praises of the Lord,

according to all that the Lord has granted us,

^uand the great goodness to the house of Israel

that he has granted them according to his compassion,

according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

8  For he said, “Surely they are my people,

children who will not deal falsely.”

And he became their Savior.

9  ^vIn all their affliction he was afflicted,⁸

and the angel of his presence saved them;

^win his love and in his pity he redeemed them;

^xhe lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

10  ^yBut they rebelled

^zand grieved his Holy Spirit;

therefore he turned to be their enemy,

and himself fought against them.

11  Then he remembered ^athe days of old,

of Moses and his people.⁹

^bWhere is he who brought them up out of the sea

with the shepherds of his flock?

Where is he who put in the midst of them

his Holy Spirit,

12  who caused his glorious arm

to go at the right hand of Moses,

^cwho divided the waters before them

^dto make for himself an everlasting name,

13  who led them through the depths?

Like a horse in the desert,

they did not stumble.

14  Like livestock that go down into the valley,

^ethe Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.

So you led your people,

^dto make for yourself a glorious name.

15  ^fLook down from heaven and see,

^gfrom your holy and beautiful¹⁰ habitation.

Where are ^hyour zeal and your might?

The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion

are held back from me.

16  For ⁱyou are our Father,

though Abraham does not know us,

and Israel does not acknowledge us;

you, O Lord, are our Father,

^jour Redeemer from of old is your name.

17  O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways

and ^kharden our heart, so that we fear you not?

^lReturn for the sake of your servants,

the tribes of your heritage.

18  ^mYour holy people held possession for a little while;¹¹

ⁿour adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.

19  ^oWe have become like those over whom you have never ruled,

like those who are not called by your name.

1  ^pOh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

^qthat the mountains might quake at your presence—

2  ¹² as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

^rto make your name known to your adversaries,

and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

3  ^sWhen you did awesome things that we did not look for,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

4  ^tFrom of old no one has heard

or perceived by the ear,

^uno eye has seen a God besides you,

who acts for those who wait for him.

5  You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,

those who remember you in your ways.

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;

in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?¹³

6  ^vWe have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

^wWe all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7  ^xThere is no one who calls upon your name,

who rouses himself to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

and have made us melt in¹⁴ the hand of our iniquities.

8  ^yBut now, O Lord, you are our Father;

^zwe are the clay, and you are our potter;

^awe are all the work of your hand.

9  ^bBe not so terribly angry, O Lord,

^cand remember not iniquity forever.

Behold, please look, we are all your people.

10  ^dYour holy cities have become a wilderness;

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

11  ^eOur holy and beautiful¹⁵ house,

where our fathers praised you,

has been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

12  ^fWill you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?

Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?