“From ^pAram Balak has brought me,

the king of Moab ^qfrom the eastern mountains:

‘Come, ^rcurse Jacob for me,

and come, denounce Israel!’

8  How can I curse whom God has not cursed?

How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?

9  For from the top of the crags ^sI see him,

from the hills I behold him;

behold, ^ta people dwelling alone,

and ^unot counting itself among the nations!

10  ^vWho can count the dust of Jacob

or number the fourth part¹ of Israel?

Let me die ^wthe death of the upright,

and let my end be like his!”

“Rise, Balak, and hear;

give ear to me, O son of Zippor:

19  ^cGod is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

20  Behold, I received a command to bless:

^dhe has blessed, and ^eI cannot revoke it.

21  ^fHe has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,

nor has he seen trouble in Israel.

The Lord their God is with them,

and the shout of a king is among them.

22  ^gGod brings them out of Egypt

and is for them like ^hthe horns of the wild ox.

23  For there is no enchantment against Jacob,

no ⁱdivination against Israel;

now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,

^j‘What has God wrought!’

24  Behold, a people! ^kAs a lioness it rises up

and as a lion it lifts itself;

^lit does not lie down until it has devoured the prey

and drunk the blood of the slain.”

1  Hear my voice, O God, in my ^mcomplaint;

preserve my life from dread of the enemy.

2  Hide me from ⁿthe secret plots of the wicked,

from the throng of evildoers,

3  who ^owhet their tongues like swords,

who ^paim bitter words like arrows,

4  shooting from ^qambush at the blameless,

shooting at him suddenly and ^rwithout fear.

5  They ^shold fast to their evil purpose;

they talk of ^tlaying snares secretly,

thinking, ^u“Who can see them?”

6  They search out injustice,

saying, “We have accomplished a diligent search.”

For ^vthe inward mind and heart of a man are deep.

7  ^wBut God shoots his arrow at them;

they are wounded suddenly.

8  They are brought to ruin, with their own ^xtongues turned against them;

all who ^ysee them will ^zwag their heads.

9  Then all mankind ^yfears;

they ^atell what God has brought about

and ponder what he has done.

10  Let ^bthe righteous one rejoice in the Lord

and ^ctake refuge in him!

Let all ^dthe upright in heart exult!

1  Praise ^eis due to you,¹ O God, in Zion,

and to you shall ^fvows be performed.

2  O you who ^ghear prayer,

to you ^hshall all flesh come.

3  When ⁱiniquities prevail against me,

you ^jatone for our transgressions.

4  ^kBlessed is the one you choose and bring near,

to ^ldwell in your courts!

We shall be ^msatisfied with the goodness of your house,

the holiness of your temple!

5  By ⁿawesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,

O God of our salvation,

the hope of all ^othe ends of the earth

and of the farthest seas;

6  the one who by his strength established the mountains,

being ^pgirded with might;

7  who ^qstills the roaring of the seas,

the roaring of their waves,

^rthe tumult of the peoples,

8  so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.

You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

9  You visit the earth and ^swater it;²

you greatly enrich it;

^tthe river of God is full of water;

^uyou provide their grain,

for so you have prepared it.

10  You water its furrows abundantly,

settling its ridges,

softening it with ^vshowers,

and blessing its growth.

11  You crown the year with your bounty;

your wagon tracks ^woverflow with abundance.

12  ^xThe pastures of the wilderness overflow,

the hills ^ygird themselves with joy,

13  ^zthe meadows clothe themselves with flocks,

the valleys deck themselves with grain,

they ^ashout and sing together for joy.

2  On a bare hill ^hraise a signal;

cry aloud to them;

wave the hand for ⁱthem to enter

the gates of the nobles.

3  I myself have commanded my consecrated ones,

and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger,

my proudly exulting ones.¹

4  The sound ^jof a tumult is on the mountains

as of a great multitude!

The sound of an uproar of kingdoms,

of nations gathering together!

^kThe Lord of hosts is mustering

a host for battle.

5  ^lThey come from a distant land,

from the end of the heavens,

the Lord and the weapons of his indignation,

to destroy the whole land.²

6  ^mWail, for ⁿthe day of the Lord is near;

as destruction from the Almighty³ it will come!

7  Therefore all hands will be feeble,

and every human heart ^owill melt.

8  They will be dismayed:

^ppangs and agony will seize them;

^qthey will be in anguish like a woman in labor.

They will look aghast at one another;

their faces will be aflame.

9  Behold, ⁿthe day of the Lord comes,

cruel, with wrath and fierce anger,

to make the land a desolation

and ^rto destroy its sinners from it.

10  ^sFor the stars of the heavens and their constellations

will not give their light;

^tthe sun will be dark at its rising,

and the moon will not shed its light.

11  I will punish ^uthe world for its evil,

and the wicked for their iniquity;

I will ^vput an end to the pomp of the arrogant,

^wand lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.

12  I will make ^xpeople more rare than fine gold,

and mankind than the ^ygold of Ophir.

13  Therefore ^zI will make the heavens tremble,

and the earth will be shaken out of its place,

at the wrath of the Lord of hosts

in the day of his fierce anger.

14  And like a hunted gazelle,

or like sheep with none to gather them,

^aeach will turn to his own people,

and each will flee to his own land.

15  Whoever is found will be thrust through,

and whoever is caught will fall by the sword.

16  ^bTheir infants will be dashed in pieces

before their eyes;

their houses will be plundered

and their wives ravished.

17  Behold, ^cI am stirring up the Medes against them,

who have no regard for silver

and do not delight in gold.

18  ^dTheir bows will slaughter⁴ the young men;

they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb;

their eyes will not pity children.

19  And Babylon, ^ethe glory of kingdoms,

the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans,

will be ^flike Sodom and Gomorrah

when God overthrew them.

20  ^gIt will never be inhabited

or lived in for all generations;

no ^hArab will pitch his tent there;

no ⁱshepherds will make their flocks lie down there.

21  But ^jwild animals will lie down there,

and their houses will be full of howling creatures;

there ^kostriches⁵ will dwell,

and there wild goats will dance.

22  Hyenas⁶ will cry in its towers,

and ^ljackals in ^mthe pleasant palaces;

its time is close at hand

and its days will not be prolonged.

^g“All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

25  ^hbut the word of the Lord remains forever.”