1  He who dwells in ^athe shelter of the Most High

will abide in ^bthe shadow of the Almighty.

2  I will say¹ to the Lord, “My ^crefuge and my ^dfortress,

my God, in whom I ^etrust.”

3  For he will deliver you from ^fthe snare of the fowler

and from the deadly pestilence.

4  He will ^gcover you with his pinions,

and under his ^hwings you will ⁱfind refuge;

his ^jfaithfulness is ^ka shield and buckler.

5  ^lYou will not fear ^mthe terror of the night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

6  nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7  A thousand may fall at your side,

ten thousand at your right hand,

but it will not come near you.

8  You will only look with your eyes

and ⁿsee the recompense of the wicked.

9  Because you have made the Lord your ^odwelling place—

the Most High, who is my ^crefuge²—

10  ^pno evil shall be allowed to befall you,

^qno plague come near your tent.

11  ^rFor he will command his ^sangels concerning you

to ^tguard you in all your ways.

12  On their hands they will bear you up,

lest you ^ustrike your foot against a stone.

13  You will tread on ^vthe lion and the ^wadder;

the young lion and ^xthe serpent you will ^ytrample underfoot.

14  “Because he ^zholds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;

I will protect him, because he ^aknows my name.

15  When he ^bcalls to me, I will answer him;

I will be with him in trouble;

I will rescue him and ^chonor him.

16  With ^dlong life I will satisfy him

and ^eshow him my salvation.”

^d“The end¹ has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass by them.

3  ^eThe songs of the temple^{2 f}shall become wailings³ in that day,”

declares the Lord God.

^g“So many dead bodies!”

“They are thrown everywhere!”

^h“Silence!”

4  Hear this, ⁱyou who trample on the needy

and bring the poor of the land to an end,

5  saying, “When will ^jthe new moon be over,

that we may sell grain?

And ^kthe Sabbath,

that we may offer wheat for sale,

that we may make ^lthe ephah small and the shekel⁴ great

and deal deceitfully with false balances,

6  that we may buy the poor for ^msilver

and the needy for a pair of sandals

and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

7  The Lord has sworn by ⁿthe pride of Jacob:

“Surely ^oI will never forget any of their deeds.

8  ^pShall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who dwells in it,

^qand all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about ^rand sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”

9  “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,

^s“I will make the sun go down at noon

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10  ^tI will turn your feasts into mourning

and all your songs into lamentation;

^uI will bring sackcloth on every waist

^uand baldness on every head;

^vI will make it like the mourning for an only son

and the end of it like a bitter day.

11  “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,

“when ^wI will send a famine on the land—

not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

^xbut of hearing the words of the Lord.

12  ^xThey shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,

^ybut they shall not find it.

13  ^z“In that day the lovely virgins and the young men

shall ^afaint for thirst.

14  Those who swear by ^bthe Guilt of Samaria,

and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’

and, ‘As ^cthe Way of ^dBeersheba lives,’

they shall fall, and never rise again.”