The Egyptians are mere humans, not God; their horses are made of flesh, not spirit. The Lord will strike with ¹  his hand; the one who helps will stumble and the one being helped will fall. Together they will perish. ² 

I will make many stumble. ¹  They will fall over one another in their hurry to flee. ²  They will say, ‘Get up! Let’s go back to our own people. Let’s go back to our homelands because the enemy is coming to destroy us.’ ³ 

They will discard their silver in the streets, and their gold will be treated like filth. ¹  Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them on the day of the Lord’s fury. ²  They will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs because their wealth ³  was the obstacle leading to their iniquity. ⁴ 

Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ¹  Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ²  Do it before you stumble ³  into distress like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ⁴  Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for into the darkness and gloom of exile. ⁵ 

For they cannot sleep unless they cause harm; ¹  they are robbed of sleep ²  until they make someone stumble. ³ 

Jerusalem certainly stumbles, Judah falls, for their words and their actions offend the Lord; ¹  they rebel against his royal authority. 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.

Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, ¹  and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, ²  without blemish ³  before his glorious presence, ⁴ 

Their slander will bring about their demise. ¹  All who see them will shudder, ² 

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, ¹  and I do not burn with indignation?

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” ¹ 

For the one who obeys the whole law but fails ¹  in one point has become guilty of all of it. ² 

So hearts melt with fear and many stumble. At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter. Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!

I will no longer subject you to ¹  the nations’ insults; no longer will you bear the shame of the peoples, and no longer will you bereave ²  your nation, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Because they used to minister to them before their idols, and became a sinful obstacle ¹  to the house of Israel, consequently I have made a vow ²  concerning them, declares the sovereign Lord, that they will be responsible ³  for their sin.

Therefore speak to them and say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: When any one from the house of Israel erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally according to the enormity of his idolatry. ¹ 

For when anyone from the house of Israel, or the foreigner who lives in Israel, separates himself from me and erects his idols in his heart and sets the obstacle leading to his iniquity before his face, and then consults a prophet to seek something from me, I the Lord am determined to answer him personally.

But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, ¹  who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block ²  before the people ³  of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality. ⁴ 

May he not allow your foot to slip! May your protector ¹  not sleep! ² 

Deliver those being taken away to death, and hold back those slipping to the slaughter. ¹