He shot his ¹  arrows and scattered them, ²  many lightning bolts ³  and routed them. ⁴ 

Hurry and look ¹  at the permanent ruins, and all the damage the enemy has done to the temple! ² 

As for you, the one who lives ²  in the shelter of the sovereign One, ³  and resides in the protective shadow ⁴  of the mighty king ⁵  –

Let those delivered by the Lord speak out, ¹  those whom he delivered ²  from the power ³  of the enemy,

What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

ז (Zayin) Jerusalem ¹  remembers, ²  when ³  she became a poor homeless person, ⁴  all her treasures that she owned in days of old. ⁵  When her people fell into an enemy’s grip, ⁶  none of her allies came to her rescue. ⁷  Her enemies ⁸  gloated over ⁹  her; they sneered at her downfall.

From the mouths of children and nursing babies you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries, ¹  so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy. ² 

Let destruction take them by surprise! ¹  Let the net they hid catch them! Let them fall into destruction! ² 

Arrange the table, lay out ¹  the carpet, eat and drink! ²  Get up, you officers, smear oil on the shields! ³ 

For a nation ¹  has invaded ²  our ³  land. There are so many of them they are too numerous to count. ⁴  Their teeth are like those ⁵  of a lion; they tear apart their prey like a lioness. ⁶ 

Before that time there was no compensation for man or animal, nor was there any relief from adversity for those who came and went, because I had pitted everybody – each one – against everyone else.

But I fear the reaction ¹  of their enemies, for ²  their adversaries would misunderstand and say, “Our power is great, ³  and the Lord has not done all this!”’

I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh – the blood of the slaughtered and captured, the chief ¹  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

Indeed, ¹  it is not an enemy who insults me, or else I could bear it; it is not one who hates me who arrogantly taunts me, ²  or else I could hide from him.

At that time ¹  the Lord will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. ² 

I am not angry. I wish I could confront some thorns and briers! Then I would march against them ¹  for battle; I would set them ²  all on fire,

Egypt rises like the Nile, like its streams turbulent at flood stage. Egypt says, ‘I will arise and cover the earth. I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’

The Babylonian tyrant ¹  pulls them all up with a fishhook; he hauls them in with his throw net. ²  When he catches ³  them in his dragnet, he is very happy. ⁴ 

But if you diligently obey him ¹  and do all that I command, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will be an adversary to your adversaries.

When Joshua was near ¹  Jericho, ²  he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. ³  Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you on our side or allied with our enemies?” ⁴