^c“The Lord is my helper;

I 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 stupid to be a man.

I have not the understanding of a man.

3  I have not learned wisdom,

nor have I ^uknowledge of the Holy One.

4  Who has ^vascended to heaven and come down?

Who has gathered the wind in his fists?

Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth?

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

Surely you know!

5  ^xEvery word of God proves true;

he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

6  Do 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 before I die:

8  Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

^yfeed me with the food that is needful for me,

9  lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

or lest I be poor and ^zsteal

and profane the name of my God.

10  Do not slander a servant to his master,

lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.

11  There are those³ who curse their ^afathers

and do not bless their mothers.

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

but are not washed of their filth.

13  There are those—how lofty are their eyes,

how high their eyelids lift!

14  There are those whose teeth are swords,

whose ^cfangs are knives,

to devour the poor from off the earth,

the needy from among mankind.

15  The leech has two daughters:

Give and Give.⁴

^dThree things are never satisfied;

four never say, “Enough”:

16  ^eSheol, the barren womb,

the land never satisfied with water,

and the fire that never says, “Enough.”

17  The eye that mocks a father

and scorns to obey a mother

will be picked out by the ravens of the valley

and ^featen by the vultures.

18  Three things are ^gtoo wonderful for me;

four 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 ^hadulteress:

she eats and wipes her mouth

and says, “I have done no wrong.”

21  Under three things the earth trembles;

under four it cannot bear up:

22  a slave when he becomes king,

and a fool when he is filled with food;

23  ⁱan unloved woman when she ^jgets a husband,

and ^ka maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

24  Four things on earth are small,

but they are exceedingly wise:

25  the ^lants are a people not strong,

yet they provide their food in the summer;

26  the rock badgers are a people not mighty,

yet they make their homes in the cliffs;

27  ^mthe locusts have no king,

yet all of them ⁿmarch in rank;

28  the lizard you can take in your hands,

yet it is in kings’ palaces.

29  Three things are stately in their tread;

four are stately in their stride:

30  the lion, which is mightiest among beasts

and does not turn back before any;

31  the strutting 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,

^oput your hand on your mouth.

33  For pressing milk produces curds,

pressing the nose produces blood,

and pressing anger produces strife.

1  For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,

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

until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,

and her salvation as a burning torch.

2  The ⁿnations shall see your righteousness,

and all the kings your glory,

and you shall be called by a new name

that the mouth of the Lord will give.

3  You shall be a ^ocrown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,

and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

4  You shall no more be termed ^pForsaken,¹

and your land shall no more be termed ^qDesolate,²

but you shall be called My 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 shall your sons marry you,

and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,

so shall your God ^rrejoice over you.

6  On your walls, O Jerusalem,

I have set ^swatchmen;

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 ^tmakes it a praise in the earth.

8  The Lord has sworn by his right hand

and by his mighty arm:

“I will not again give your grain

^uto be food for your enemies,

and foreigners shall not drink your wine

for which you have labored;

9  but those who garner it shall eat it

and praise the Lord,

and those who gather it shall drink it

^vin the courts of my sanctuary.”⁵

10  Go through, go through the gates;

^wprepare the way for the people;

build up, build up the ^xhighway;

clear it of stones;

^ylift up a signal over the peoples.

11  Behold, the Lord has proclaimed

to the end of the earth:

^zSay to the daughter of Zion,

“Behold, your salvation ^acomes;

behold, ^bhis reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.”

12  And they shall be called The Holy People,

The ^cRedeemed of the Lord;

and you shall be called Sought Out,

A City Not Forsaken.

1  ^dWho is this who comes from Edom,

in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,

he who is splendid in his apparel,

marching in the greatness of his strength?

“It is I, speaking in righteousness,

mighty to save.”

2  Why is your apparel red,

and your garments like his who treads in the ^ewinepress?

3  “I have trodden the winepress alone,

and 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  For the ^fday of vengeance was in my heart,

and my year of redemption⁷ had come.

5  I looked, but ^gthere 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;

I 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,

and 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,

^hchildren who will not deal falsely.”

And he became their Savior.

9  In all their affliction he was afflicted,⁸

and the angel of his presence saved them;

in his ⁱlove and in his pity he redeemed them;

he lifted them up and ^jcarried them all the days of old.

10  But ^kthey rebelled

and grieved his Holy Spirit;

therefore he turned to be their enemy,

and himself fought against them.

11  Then he remembered the days of old,

of Moses and his people.⁹

Where 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,

^lwho divided the waters before them

to make for himself an everlasting name,

13  who ^mled them through the depths?

Like a horse in the desert,

they did not stumble.

14  Like livestock that go down into the valley,

the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest.

So you led your people,

to make for yourself a glorious name.

15  ⁿLook down from heaven and see,

from your holy and beautiful¹⁰ habitation.

Where are your zeal and your might?

The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion

are held back from me.

16  For you are our Father,

though Abraham does not know us,

and Israel does not acknowledge us;

you, O Lord, are our Father,

our Redeemer from of old is your name.

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

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

Return for the sake of your servants,

the tribes of your heritage.

18  Your holy people held possession for a little while;¹¹

our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.

19  We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,

like those who are not called by your name.

1  Oh that you would rend the heavens and ^pcome down,

that the mountains might quake at your presence—

2  ¹² as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

3  When you did awesome things that we did not look for,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

4  From of old ^qno one has heard

or perceived by the ear,

no 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  We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

We all fade like a leaf,

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

7  There is no one who calls upon your name,

who rouses himself to take hold of you;

for you have ^rhidden your face from us,

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

8  But now, O Lord, you are our ^sFather;

we are the ^tclay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

9  Be not so ^uterribly angry, O Lord,

and ^vremember not iniquity forever.

Behold, please look, we are all your people.

10  Your holy cities have become a wilderness;

Zion has become a wilderness,

Jerusalem a desolation.

11  Our holy and beautiful¹⁵ house,

where our fathers praised you,

^whas been burned by fire,

and all our pleasant places have become ruins.

12  Will you ^xrestrain yourself at these things, O Lord?

Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?