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

Yet because of you ¹  we are killed all day long; we are treated like ²  sheep at the slaughtering block. ³ 

They treat me like ¹  those who descend into the grave. ²  I am like a helpless man, ³ 

who plan ways to harm me. ¹  All day long they stir up conflict. ² 

O Lord, shelter me from the power ¹  of the wicked! Protect me from violent men, who plan to knock me over. ² 

If someone blesses ¹  his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, ²  it will be counted as a curse to him. ³ 

Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

Their arrows are sharpened, and all their bows are prepared. ¹  The hooves of their horses are hard as flint, ²  and their chariot wheels are like a windstorm. ³ 

In just a very short time ¹  Lebanon will turn into an orchard, and the orchard will be considered a forest. ² 

This desolation will continue until new life is poured out on us from heaven. ¹  Then the desert will become an orchard and the orchard will be considered a forest. ² 

Highways are empty, ¹  there are no travelers. ²  Treaties are broken, ³  witnesses are despised, ⁴  human life is treated with disrespect. ⁵ 

Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales. He lifts ¹  the coastlands ²  as if they were dust.

But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; ¹  even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. ² 

ב (Bet) The precious sons of Zion were worth their weight in gold – Alas! – but now they are treated like ¹  broken clay pots, made by a potter. ² 

They sing ¹  to the tune of ²  stringed instruments; ³  like David they invent ⁴  musical instruments.

Whatever ¹  you plot ²  against the Lord, he will completely destroy! ³  Distress ⁴  will not arise ⁵  a second time.

You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow human being.’

He has filled them with skill ¹  to do all kinds of work ²  as craftsmen, as designers, as embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and in fine linen, and as weavers. They are ³  craftsmen in all the work ⁴  and artistic designers. ⁵ 

¹ “The tabernacle itself ²  you are to make with ³  ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet; ⁴  you are to make them with ⁵  cherubim that are the work of an artistic designer.

“You are to make a special curtain ¹  of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen; it is to be made ²  with cherubim, the work of an artistic designer.