Surely they will be totally consumed ¹  like ²  entangled thorn bushes, ³  like the drink of drunkards, ⁴  like very ⁵  dry stubble.

The commander ¹  orders ²  his officers; they stumble ³  as they advance; ⁴  they rush to the city wall ⁵  and they set up ⁶  the covered siege tower. ⁷ 

They ¹  tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them.

They were overwhelmed by fear and said to one another, “Who then is this? ¹  Even the wind and sea obey him!” ² 

He ¹  did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.

¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ²  the people weighed down by evil deeds. They are offspring who do wrong, children ³  who do wicked things. They have abandoned the Lord, and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴  They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

For this reason my stomach churns; ¹  cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed ²  by what I hear, horrified by what I see.

For even if you were to defeat all the Babylonian forces ¹  fighting against you so badly that only wounded men were left lying in their tents, they would get up and burn this city down.”’” ² 

For just as you ¹  have drunk ²  on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. ³  They will drink, and they will gulp down; they will be as though they had never been.

But you will become drunk ¹  with shame, not majesty. ²  Now it is your turn to drink and expose your uncircumcised foreskin! ³  The cup of wine in the Lord’s right hand ⁴  is coming to you, and disgrace will replace your majestic glory!

Then ¹  he said to them, “Where is your faith?” ²  But they were afraid and amazed, ³  saying to one another, “Who then is this? He commands even the winds and the water, ⁴  and they obey him!”

Or has God ¹  ever before tried to deliver ²  a nation from the middle of another nation, accompanied by judgments, ³  signs, wonders, war, strength, power, ⁴  and other very terrifying things like the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

I listened and my stomach churned; ¹  the sound made my lips quiver. My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, ²  and I shook as I tried to walk. ³  I long ⁴  for the day of distress to come upon ⁵  the people who attack us.