But as for you, ¹  turn back and head for the desert by the way to the Red Sea.” ² 

“Now then, be good enough to look ¹  at me; ²  and I will not ³  lie to your face!

Look ¹  at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths. ² 

(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites were living in the valleys.) ¹  Tomorrow, turn and journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.”

“You have circled around this mountain long enough; now turn north.

Yes, ¹  throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; ²  the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. ³ 

A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; construct in the desert a road for our God.

Turn to me so you can be delivered, ¹  all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer.

He says, ¹  “Build it! Build it! Clear a way! Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”

The dogs have big appetites; they are never full. ¹  They are shepherds who have no understanding; they all go their own way, each one looking for monetary gain. ² 

Come through! Come through the gates! Prepare the way for the people! Build it! Build the roadway! Remove the stones! Lift a signal flag for the nations!

They say to a wooden idol, ¹  ‘You are my father.’ They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ²  Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ³  Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

Get up now, ¹  resume your journey, heading for ²  the Amorite hill country, to all its areas ³  including the arid country, ⁴  the highlands, the Shephelah, ⁵  the Negev, ⁶  and the coastal plain – all of Canaan and Lebanon as far as the Great River, that is, the Euphrates.

Now the Lord your God has made your fellow Israelites secure, ¹  just as he promised them. So now you may turn around and go to your homes ²  in your own land ³  which Moses the Lord’s servant assigned to you east of the Jordan.