The godless at heart ¹  nourish anger, ²  they do not cry out even when he binds them.

I also could speak ¹  like you, if ²  you were in my place; I could pile up ³  words against you and I could shake my head at you. ⁴ 

Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. ¹  Surely they accumulate worthless wealth without knowing who will eventually haul it away.” ² 

A psalm of Asaph. O God, foreigners ²  have invaded your chosen land; ³  they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem ⁴  into a heap of ruins.

He says, ¹  “Build it! Build it! Clear a way! Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”

It is of no value ¹  for the soil or for the manure pile; it is to be thrown out. ²  The one who has ears to hear had better listen!” ³ 

You must gather all of its plunder into the middle of the plaza ¹  and burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It will be an abandoned ruin ²  forever – it must never be rebuilt again.

And when he is carried to the tombs, and watch is kept ¹  over the funeral mound, ² 

You have broken down all his ¹  walls; you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.

They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’ ¹  because the Lord rejects them.”

Because you did that, I, the Lord, affirm that ¹  a time is coming when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon, hear the sound of the battle cry. It will become a mound covered with ruins. ²  Its villages will be burned to the ground. ³  Then Israel will take back its land from those who took their land from them. I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁴ 

The Lord says to Edom, ¹  “I will certainly make you small among nations. I will make you despised by all humankind.

I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars, ¹  and I will stack your dead bodies on top of the lifeless bodies of your idols. ²  I will abhor you. ³ 

Look at the land of the Chaldeans, these people who have lost their identity! ¹  The Assyrians have made it a home for wild animals. They erected their siege towers, ²  demolished ³  its fortresses, and turned it into a heap of ruins. ⁴ 

For the Lord’s power will make this mountain secure. ¹  Moab will be trampled down where it stands, ²  as a heap of straw is trampled down in ³  a manure pile.

The Lord says, “I will restore the ruined houses of the descendants of Jacob. I will show compassion on their ruined homes. ¹  Every city will be rebuilt on its former ruins. ²  Every fortified dwelling will occupy its traditional site. ³ 

For there will be a time when people ¹  will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, ²  they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. ³ 

Job took a shard of broken pottery to scrape ¹  himself ²  with while he was sitting ³  among the ashes. ⁴ 

Call to mind now: ¹  Who, ²  being innocent, ever perished? ³  And where were upright people ⁴  ever destroyed? ⁵ 

Because God has untied ¹  my tent cord and afflicted me, people throw off all restraint in my presence. ²