Your enemies, O Lord, hurl insults; they insult your chosen king as they dog his footsteps. ¹ 

Then many will be led into sin, ¹  and they will betray one another and hate one another.

In those days ¹  no one could travel safely, ²  for total chaos had overtaken all the people of the surrounding lands. ³ 

The godly speak wise words and promote justice. ¹ 

He ordered flies to come; ¹  gnats invaded their whole territory.

“You must watch out for yourselves. You will be handed over ¹  to councils ²  and beaten in the synagogues. ³  You will stand before governors and kings ⁴  because of me, as a witness to them.

But before all this, ¹  they will seize ²  you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues ³  and prisons. You ⁴  will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.

They will surround Jerusalem ¹  like men guarding a field ²  because they have rebelled against me,” says the Lord.

You will die the death of the uncircumcised ¹  by the hand of foreigners; for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

I will pelt you with filth; ¹  I will treat you with contempt; I will make you a public spectacle.

Jezebel’s corpse will be like manure on the surface of the ground in the plot of land at Jezreel. People will not be able to even recognize her.’” ¹ 

he lived in ruined towns ¹  and in houses where ²  no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps. ³ 

Evil men draw their swords and prepare their bows, to bring down ¹  the oppressed and needy, and to slaughter those who are godly. ² 

Suddenly he went ¹  after her like an ox that goes to the slaughter, like a stag prancing into a trapper’s snare ² 

צ (Tsade) Our enemies ¹  hunted us down at every step ²  so that we could not walk about in our streets. Our end drew near, our days were numbered, ³  for our end had come!

For this reason I ¹  will mourn and wail; I will walk around barefoot ²  and without my outer garments. ³  I will howl ⁴  like a wild dog, ⁵  and screech ⁶  like an owl. ⁷ 

Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his ¹  commandments which I am urging ²  you today to be careful to do.

Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,” says the Lord, “but instead I will turn every last person over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.”