“If I go to the east, he is not there, and to the west, yet I do not perceive him.

May all who hate Zion be humiliated and turned back!

May Dan be a snake beside the road, a viper by the path, that bites the heels of the horse so that its rider falls backward. ¹ 

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ¹ 

Shem and Japheth took the garment ¹  and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned ²  the other way so they did not see their father’s nakedness.

The sovereign Lord has spoken to me clearly; ¹  I have not rebelled, I have not turned back.

So when Jesus ¹  said to them, “I am he,” they retreated ²  and fell to the ground. ³ 

Hezekiah answered, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for it ¹  to go back ten steps.”

Isaiah the prophet called out to the Lord, and the Lord ¹  made the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz. ² 

When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli ¹  fell backward from his chair beside the gate. He broke his neck and died, for he ²  was old and heavy. He had judged Israel for forty years.

Look, I will make the shadow go back ten steps on the stairs of Ahaz.” ¹  And then the shadow went back ten steps. ² 

I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘You people have deserted me! You keep turning your back on me.’ ²  So I have unleashed my power against you ³  and have begun to destroy you. ⁴  I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!” ⁵ 

who frustrates the omens of the empty talkers ¹  and humiliates ²  the omen readers, who overturns the counsel of the wise men ³  and makes their advice ⁴  seem foolish,

So the Lord’s word to them will sound like meaningless gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹  As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ²  and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ³ 

May those who are trying to snatch away my life be totally embarrassed and ashamed! ¹  May those who want to harm me be turned back and ashamed! ² 

What do I see?” ¹  says the Lord. ²  “The soldiers ³  are terrified. They are retreating. They have been defeated. They are overcome with terror; ⁴  they desert quickly without looking back.

May those who are trying to take my life be embarrassed and ashamed! ¹  May those who want to harm me be turned back and ashamed! ² 

Justice is driven back; godliness ¹  stands far off. Indeed, ²  honesty stumbles in the city square and morality is not even able to enter.

He drove his enemies back; he made them a permanent target for insults. ¹ 

The living beings moved backward and forward as quickly as flashes of lightning. ¹