for they had not met the Israelites with food ¹  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

He is like ¹  a tree planted by flowing streams; ²  it ³  yields ⁴  its fruit at the proper time, ⁵  and its leaves never fall off. ⁶  He succeeds in everything he attempts. ⁷ 

For this reason every one of your faithful followers ¹  should pray to you while there is a window of opportunity. ²  Certainly ³  when the surging water ⁴  rises, it will not reach them. ⁵ 

For the music director; a well-written song ²  by the Korahites. As a deer ³  longs ⁴  for streams of water, so I long ⁵  for you, O God!

You visit the earth and give it rain; ¹  you make it rich and fertile ²  with overflowing streams full of water. ³  You provide grain for them, ⁴  for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. ⁵ 

Don’t let the current overpower me! Don’t let the deep swallow me up! Don’t let the pit ¹  devour me! ² 

Yes, ¹  he struck a rock and water flowed out, streams gushed forth. But can he also give us food? Will he provide meat for his people?”

Look, the sovereign Lord who commands armies ¹  is about to remove from Jerusalem ²  and Judah every source of security, including ³  all the food and water, ⁴ 

“These people ¹  have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah ²  and melt in fear over Rezin and the son of Remaliah. ³ 

They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain. ¹  For there will be universal submission to the Lord’s sovereignty, just as the waters completely cover the sea. ² 

For the waters of Nimrim are gone; ¹  the grass is dried up, the vegetation has disappeared, and there are no plants.

Indeed, the waters of Dimon ¹  are full of blood! Indeed, I will heap even more trouble on Dimon. ²  A lion will attack ³  the Moabite fugitives and the people left in the land.

The many nations massing together are as good as dead, ¹  those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. ²  The people making such an uproar are as good as dead, ³  those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. ⁴ 

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹  when he shouts at ²  them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles ³  before a strong gale.

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 

You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool – but you did not trust in ¹  the one who made it; ²  you did not depend on ³  the one who formed it long ago!

For the Lord’s power will make this mountain secure. ¹  Moab will be trampled down where it stands, ²  as a heap of straw is trampled down in ³  a manure pile.

Look, the sovereign master ¹  sends a strong, powerful one. ²  With the force of a hailstorm or a destructive windstorm, ³  with the might of a driving, torrential rainstorm, ⁴  he will knock that crown ⁵  to the ground with his hand. ⁶ 

It shatters in pieces like a clay jar, so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ¹  Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ²  to scoop a hot coal from a fire ³  or to skim off water from a cistern.” ⁴ 

The sovereign master ¹  will give you distress to eat and suffering to drink; ²  but your teachers will no longer be hidden; your eyes will see them. ³