Yahweh’s Judgment and Help

¹ Ah, destroyer, and yourself not destroyed! And treacherous one, and no one has dealt treacherously with him!¹ When you ⌞cease⌟² destroying, you will be destroyed. When you stop dealing treacherously, one will deal treacherously with you.

1. Many manuscripts suggest “you” rather than “him”
2. Literally “finishing”

² Yahweh, be gracious to us, we wait for you. Be our¹ arm in the mornings, indeed our salvation in the time of trouble.

1. Hebrew “their”

³ At the sound of tumult, peoples fled; because of your exaltation, nations scattered.

⁴ And your spoil is gathered, as the gathering of the locust, as a swarm of locusts storming on it.

⁵ Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high; he filled Zion with justice and righteousness,

⁶ and he will be the security of your times, an abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is his treasure.

⁷ Look! Their heroes cry out in the street; the messengers of peace weep bitterly.

⁸ Highways are deserted; the traveler on the road ceases. One breaks a treaty, he rejects the cities,¹ he does not hold man in high regard.

1. A Dead Sea Scroll reads “witnesses”

⁹ The land mourns; it languishes. Lebanon feels abashed; it withers. Sharon is like the desert, and Bashan and Carmel ⌞are losing their leaves⌟.¹

1. Literally “shaking off”

¹⁰ “Now I will arise,” says Yahweh. “Now I will lift myself up proudly; now I will raise myself.

¹¹ You conceive dry grass, you bring forth stubble; your breath is a fire; it will consume you.

¹² And the peoples will be burning to lime— they are burned like thorns that have been cut down in the fire.

¹³ You who are far away, hear what I have done; and you who are near, know my might!”

¹⁴ Sinners are afraid in Zion; trembling has seized the godless: “Who of us can ⌞live⌟¹ with devouring fire? Who of us can ⌞live⌟² with everlasting consuming hearths?”

1. Literally “dwell as an alien”
2. Literally “dwell as an alien”

¹⁵ He who walks in righteousness and speaks uprightness, who rejects the gain of extortion, who ⌞refuses⌟¹ a bribe, who stops up his ears² from hearing ⌞bloodshed⌟³ and shuts his eyes from seeing evil.

1. Literally “shakes his hand from the taking of”
2. Hebrew “ear”
3. Literally “blood”

¹⁶ That one will live on the heights; the fortresses of rocks will be his refuge. His food will be given; his waters¹ will endure.

1. Hebrew “water”

¹⁷ Your eyes will see the king in his beauty; they will see a ⌞distant land⌟.¹

1. Literally “land of distance”

¹⁸ Your ⌞mind⌟¹ will meditate on the terror: “Where is the one who counted? Where is the one who weighed out? Where is the one who counted the towers?”

1. Literally “heart”

¹⁹ You will not see the insolent people, the people ⌞whose language is too obscure to understand⌟,¹ whose stammering of tongue ⌞cannot be understood⌟.²

1. Literally “obscure of lip than to hear”
2. Literally “there is no understanding”

²⁰ Look on Zion, the city of our appointed festivals! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed settlement, a tent ⌞that is not moved⌟.¹ No one will ever pull out its tent pegs, and none of its ropes will be torn in two.

1. Literally “not he is loaded”

²¹ Rather, there Yahweh will be mighty for us, a place of rivers and ⌞broad streams⌟,¹ a galley ship with² oars³ cannot go in it, and a mighty ship cannot pass through it.

1. Literally “streams broad of hands”
2. Or “of”
3. Hebrew “oar”

²² For Yahweh is our judge; Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king; he is the one who will save us.

²³ Your riggings hang slack; they do not hold the base of their mast firm, they do not spread out the sail. Then the prey of spoil in abundance will be divided; the lame will take plunder.

²⁴ And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who live in it, their iniquity will be taken away.