With all my strength I will say, ¹  “O Lord, who can compare to you? You rescue ²  the oppressed from those who try to overpower them; ³  the oppressed and needy from those who try to rob them.” ⁴ 

Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head. Those who want to destroy me, my enemies for no reason, ¹  outnumber me. ²  They make me repay what I did not steal! ³ 

when those who keep watch over the house ¹  begin to tremble, ²  and the virile men begin to stoop over, ³  and the grinders ⁴  begin to cease because they grow few, and those who look through the windows grow dim, ⁵ 

Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ¹  those who also accumulate landed property ²  until there is no land left, ³  and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁴ 

At that time ¹  those left in Israel, those who remain of the family ²  of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. ³  Instead they will truly ⁴  rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ 

In the evening there is sudden terror; ¹  by morning they vanish. ²  This is the fate of those who try to plunder us, the destiny of those who try to loot us! ³ 

The fishermen will mourn and lament, all those who cast a fishhook into the river, and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve. ¹ 

I am the one who gives them reason to celebrate. ¹  Complete prosperity ²  is available both to those who are far away and those who are nearby,” says the Lord, “and I will heal them.

But those who harvest the grain ¹  will eat it, and will praise the Lord. Those who pick the grapes will drink the wine ²  in the courts of my holy sanctuary.”

“I made myself available to those who did not ask for me; ¹  I appeared to those who did not look for me. ²  I said, ‘Here I am! Here I am!’ to a nation that did not invoke ³  my name.

But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent ¹  and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands ²  and to their own country.

Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. ¹ 

They continually say ¹  to those who reject what the Lord has said, ²  ‘Things will go well for you!’ ³  They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’

But ¹  all who destroyed you will be destroyed. All your enemies will go into exile. Those who plundered you will be plundered. I will cause those who pillaged you to be pillaged. ² 

“The Lord says, ‘Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. ¹  Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians ²  will live. They will escape with their lives.’” ³ 

Go ahead and ¹  charge into battle, you horsemen! Drive furiously, you charioteers! Let the soldiers march out into battle, those from Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields, and those from Lydia ²  who are armed with the bow. ³ 

I will put an end in Moab to those who make offerings at her places of worship. ¹  I will put an end to those who sacrifice to other gods. I, the Lord, affirm it! ² 

I will vent my rage against the wall, and against those who coated it with whitewash. Then I will say to you, “The wall is no more and those who whitewashed it are no more –

before your evil was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn to the daughters of Aram ¹  and all those around her and to the daughters of the Philistines – those all around you who despise you.

“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, ¹  I am about to deliver you over to ²  those whom you hate, to those with whom you were disgusted.