Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens ¹  so that ²  we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise ³  we will be scattered ⁴  across the face of the entire earth.”

because of the God of your father, who will help you, ¹  because of the sovereign God, ²  who will bless you ³  with blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below, and blessings of the breasts and womb. ⁴ 

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sky ¹  that there may be ²  hail in all the land of Egypt, on people and on animals, ³  and on everything that grows ⁴  in the field in the land of Egypt.”

When Moses extended ¹  his staff toward the sky, the Lord ²  sent thunder ³  and hail, and fire fell to the earth; ⁴  so the Lord caused hail to rain down on the land of Egypt.

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward heaven ²  so that there may be ³  darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness so thick it can be felt.” ⁴ 

When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky. ¹ 

He prayed: ¹  “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth below! You maintain covenantal loyalty ²  to your servants who obey you with sincerity. ³ 

and prayed: ¹  “O Lord God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth! You maintain covenantal loyalty ²  to your servants who obey you with sincerity. ³ 

When ¹  I close up the sky ²  so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, ³  or send a plague among my people,

I prayed, ¹  “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens.

You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky. You brought them to the land you had told their ancestors to enter in order to possess.

For the music director; by David. Fools say to themselves, ²  “There is no God.” ³  They sin and commit evil deeds; ⁴  none of them does what is right. ⁵ 

For the music director; according to the machalath style; ²  a well-written song ³  by David. Fools say to themselves, ⁴  “There is no God.” ⁵  They sin and commit evil deeds; ⁶  none of them does what is right. ⁷ 

For ¹  evil burned like a fire, ²  it consumed thorns and briers; it burned up the thickets of the forest, and they went up in smoke. 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.

He is the one who sits on the earth’s horizon; ¹  its inhabitants are like grasshoppers before him. ²  He is the one who stretches out the sky like a thin curtain, ³  and spreads it out ⁴  like a pitched tent. ⁵ 

This is what the Lord, your protector, ¹  says, the one who formed you in the womb: “I am the Lord, who made everything, who alone stretched out the sky, who fashioned the earth all by myself, ² 

I commission you ¹  as my spokesman; ²  I cover you with the palm of my hand, ³  to establish ⁴  the sky and to found the earth, to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” ⁵ 

¹ The rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return, but instead water the earth and make it produce and yield crops, and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

Because of this the land will mourn and the sky above will grow black. ¹  For I have made my purpose known ²  and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” ³