Who Is like the Lord Our God?
1 Praise the Lord!
zPraise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!
2 aBlessed be the name of the Lord
bfrom this time forth and forevermore!
3 cFrom the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the Lord is to be praised!
4 The Lord is high dabove all nations,
and ehis glory above the heavens!
5 fWho is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
7 gHe raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 hHe gives the barren woman a home,
imaking her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord!
The Holy Stones Lie Scattered
1 How the gold has grown dim,
how the pure gold is changed!
The holy stones lie scattered
mat the head of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion,
worth their weight in fine gold,
how they are regarded as nearthen pots,
the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer the breast;
they nurse their young;
but the daughter of my people has become cruel,
olike the ostriches in the wilderness.
4 pThe tongue of the nursing infant sticks
to the roof of its mouth for thirst;
the children beg for food,
but no one gives to them.
5 Those who once feasted on delicacies
perish in the streets;
those who were brought up in purple
embrace ash heaps.
6 For the chastisement1 of the daughter of my people has been greater
than the punishment2 of qSodom,
which was roverthrown in a moment,
and no hands were wrung for her.3
7 Her princes were purer than snow,
swhiter than milk;
their bodies were more ruddy than coral,
8 tNow their face is blacker than soot;
they are not recognized in the streets;
their uskin has shriveled on their bones;
it has become as dry as wood.
9 Happier were the victims of the sword
than the victims of hunger,
who wasted away, pierced
by lack of the fruits of the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children;
they became their food
during the destruction of the daughter of my people.
11 The Lord vgave full vent to his wrath;
he poured out his hot anger,
and he wkindled a fire in Zion
that consumed its foundations.
12 The kings of the earth did not believe,
nor any of the inhabitants of the world,
that foe or enemy could enter
the gates of Jerusalem.
13 This was for the sins of her prophets
and the iniquities of her priests,
who shed in the midst of her
the blood of the righteous.
14 They wandered, xblind, through the streets;
they were so defiled with blood
that no one was able to touch
their garments.
15 “Away! yUnclean!” people cried at them.
“Away! Away! Do not touch!”
So they became fugitives and wanderers;
people said among the nations,
“They shall stay with us no longer.”
16 The Lord himself6 has zscattered them;
he will regard them no more;
no honor was shown to the priests,
ano favor to the elders.
17 bOur eyes failed, ever watching
vainly for help;
in our watching we watched
for a nation which could not save.
18 They dogged our steps
so that we could not walk in our streets;
our cend drew near; our days were numbered,
for our end had come.
19 Our pursuers were dswifter
than the eagles in the heavens;
they chased us on the mountains;
they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the Lord’s anointed,
was captured in their pits,
of whom we said, “Under his shadow
we shall live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom,
you who dwell in the land of eUz;
but fto you also the cup shall pass;
you shall become gdrunk and strip yourself bare.
22 The punishment of your iniquity, O daughter of Zion, is accomplished;
he will keep you in exile no longer;7
but hyour iniquity, O daughter of Edom, he will punish;
he will uncover your sins.
