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.

He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ¹  Zebah and Zalmunna! You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” ² 

In that day people will sing this taunt song to you – they will mock you with this lament: ¹  ‘We are completely destroyed; they sell off ²  the property of my people. How they remove it from me! ³  They assign our fields to the conqueror.’ ⁴ 

Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile!

Then I ¹  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ²  Should you not conduct yourselves ³  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

He had been hired to scare me so that I would do this and thereby sin. They would thus bring reproach on me and I ¹  would be discredited. ² 

Take note, O Lord, ¹  of the way your servants are taunted, ²  and of how I must bear so many insults from people! ³ 

I will no longer subject you to ¹  the nations’ insults; no longer will you bear the shame of the peoples, and no longer will you bereave ²  your nation, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Even youngsters have scorned me; when I get up, ¹  they scoff at me. ² 

The one enthroned ¹  in heaven laughs in disgust; ²  the Lord taunts ³  them.

When I tripped, they taunted me relentlessly, ¹  and tried to bite me. ² 

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!”’

Peninnah ¹  would behave this way year after year. Whenever Hannah ²  went up to the Lord’s house, Peninnah ³  would upset her so that she would weep and refuse to eat.

Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them. ¹  For he has defied the armies of the living God!”

You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

Surely mockery ¹  is with me; ²  my eyes must dwell on their hostility. ³ 

All who see me taunt ¹  me; they mock me ²  and shake their heads. ³ 

But you, O Lord, laugh in disgust at them; ¹  you taunt ²  all the nations.

For I suffer ¹  humiliation for your sake ²  and am thoroughly disgraced. ³ 

I am disdained by them. ¹  When they see me, they shake their heads. ²