All who hate me whisper insults about me to one another; ¹  they plan ways to harm me.

“Now a word was secretly ¹  brought ²  to me, and my ear caught ³  a whisper ⁴  of it.

Indeed, these are but the outer fringes of his ways! ¹  How faint is the whisper ²  we hear of him! But who can understand the thunder of his power?”

He calmed the storm, ¹  and the waves ²  grew silent.

O Lord, in distress they looked for you; they uttered incantations because of your discipline. ¹ 

After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a soft whisper. ¹ 

You will fall; while lying on the ground ¹  you will speak; from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard. ²  Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld; ³  from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation. ⁴ 

My assailants revile and conspire ¹  against me all day long.

¹ They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. ²  Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?” ³ 

my ¹  lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will whisper ²  no deceit.

Pay attention to me and answer me! I am so upset ¹  and distressed, ²  I am beside myself, ³ 

He decreed it as a regulation in Joseph, when he attacked the land of Egypt. ¹  I heard a voice I did not recognize. ² 

When he sees chariots, teams of horses, ¹  riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be alert, very alert.”

For ¹  I will remove the names of the Baal idols ²  from your lips, ³  so that you will never again utter their names!” ⁴ 

What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what is whispered in your ear, ¹  proclaim from the housetops. ² 

Now Joshua had instructed the army, ¹  “Do not give a battle cry ²  or raise your voices; say nothing ³  until the day I tell you, ‘Give the battle cry.’ ⁴  Then give the battle cry!” ⁵ 

Throughout the afternoon they were in an ecstatic frenzy, ¹  but there was no sound, no answer, and no response. ² 

One of his advisers said, “No, my master, O king. The prophet Elisha who lives in Israel keeps telling the king of Israel the things you say in your bedroom.”

I have not spoken in secret, in some hidden place. ¹  I did not tell Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain!’ ²  I am the Lord, the one who speaks honestly, who makes reliable announcements. ³ 

I have listened to them very carefully, ¹  but they do not speak honestly. None of them regrets the evil he has done. None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ²  All of them persist in their own wayward course ³  like a horse charging recklessly into battle.