just as I was in my most productive time, ¹  when God’s intimate friendship ²  was experienced in my tent,

A prayer ²  of David. Protect me, O God, for I have taken shelter in you. ³ 

For you bring him ¹  rich ²  blessings; ³  you place a golden crown on his head.

Princesses ¹  are among your honored guests, ²  your bride ³  stands at your right hand, wearing jewelry made with gold from Ophir. ⁴ 

Like apples of gold in settings of silver, ¹  so is a word skillfully spoken. ² 

His head is like the most pure gold. ¹  His hair is curly ²  – black like a raven.

So he said, “These are the two anointed ones ¹  who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

¹ King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden ²  statue made. ³  It was ninety feet ⁴  tall and nine feet ⁵  wide. He erected it on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

They made two more ¹  gold rings and attached them to the bottom of the two shoulder pieces on the front of the ephod, close to the juncture above the waistband of the ephod.

“Command the Israelites to bring ¹  to you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. ² 

Solomon plated the inside of the temple with gold. ¹  He hung golden chains in front of the inner sanctuary and plated the inner sanctuary ²  with gold.

He took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including all the golden shields that Solomon had made.

The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers ¹  and basins.

He made ten tables and set them in the temple, five on the right and five on the left. He also made one hundred gold bowls.

even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious ¹  blasphemies.

May there be ¹  an abundance ²  of grain in the earth; on the tops ³  of the mountains may it ⁴  sway! ⁵  May its ⁶  fruit trees ⁷  flourish ⁸  like the forests of Lebanon! ⁹  May its crops be as abundant as the grass of the earth!

My heart palpitates, ¹  I shake in fear; ²  the twilight I desired has brought me terror.

Even the calf idol ¹  will be carried to Assyria, as tribute for the great king. ²  Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be put to shame because ³  of its wooden idol. ⁴ 

People will reside again ¹  in his shade; they will plant and harvest grain in abundance. ²  They will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

“Certainly when ¹  I punish Israel for their ²  covenant transgressions, ³  I will destroy ⁴  Bethel’s ⁵  altars. The horns ⁶  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.