Men are nothing but a mere breath; human beings are unreliable. ¹  When they are weighed in the scales, all of them together are lighter than air. ² 

You ascend on high, ¹  you have taken many captives. ²  You receive tribute ³  from ⁴  men, including even sinful rebels. Indeed the Lord God lives there! ⁵ 

May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, and do not give Jerusalem priority over whatever gives me the most joy. ¹ 

Who really knows if the human spirit ¹  ascends upward, and the animal’s spirit descends into the earth?

If the anger ¹  of the ruler flares up ²  against you, do not resign ³  from your position, ⁴  for a calm ⁵  response ⁶  can undo ⁷  great offenses.

The Speaker: ¹  Who is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, like ²  a fragrant billow ³  of myrrh and frankincense, ⁴  every kind of fragrant powder ⁵  of the traveling merchants? ⁶ 

I want ¹  to climb the palm tree, ²  and take hold of its fruit stalks. May your breasts be like the clusters of grapes, ³  and may the fragrance of your breath be like apricots! ⁴ 

The Maidens about His Beloved: Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? The Beloved to Her Lover: Under the apple tree I aroused you; ¹  there your mother conceived you, there she who bore you was in labor of childbirth. ² 

I will make it a wasteland; no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ¹  and thorns and briers will grow there. I will order the clouds not to drop any rain on it.

There will be a highway leading out of Assyria for the remnant of his people, ¹  just as there was for Israel, when ²  they went up from the land of Egypt.

You said to yourself, ¹  “I will climb up to the sky. Above the stars of El ²  I will set up my throne. I will rule on the mountain of assembly on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ³ 

They went up to the temple, ¹  the people of Dibon went up to the high places to lament. ²  Because of what happened to Nebo and Medeba, ³  Moab wails. Every head is shaved bare, every beard is trimmed off. ⁴ 

I have received a distressing message: ¹  “The deceiver deceives, the destroyer destroys. Attack, you Elamites! Lay siege, you Medes! I will put an end to all the groaning!” ² 

Mourn ¹  over the land of my people, which is overgrown with thorns and briers, and over all the once-happy houses ²  in the city filled with revelry. ³ 

Night and day it will burn; ¹  its smoke will ascend continually. Generation after generation it will be a wasteland and no one will ever pass through it again.

No lions will be there, no ferocious wild animals will be on it ¹  – they will not be found there. Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, ¹  King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

Hezekiah took the letter ¹  from the messengers and read it. ²  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.

Because you rage against me and the uproar you create has reached my ears, ¹  I will put my hook in your nose, ²  and my bridle between your lips, and I will lead you back the way you came.”

But those who wait for the Lord’s help ¹  find renewed strength; they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, ²  they run without growing weary, they walk without getting tired.