Singers walk in front; musicians follow playing their stringed instruments, ¹  in the midst of young women playing tambourines. ² 

Indeed, the Lord’s shout will shatter Assyria; ¹  he will beat them with a club.

How can you men of Moab say, ‘We are heroes, men who are mighty in battle?’

I too will clap my hands together, I will exhaust my rage; I the Lord have spoken.”

Meanwhile the boat, already far from land, ¹  was taking a beating from the waves because the wind was against it.

The ¹  rest seized his slaves, insolently mistreated them, and killed them.

Each night and every day among the tombs and in the mountains, he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

Then he went up with them into the boat, and the wind ceased. They were completely astonished,

A great number of the people followed him, among them women ¹  who were mourning ²  and wailing for him.

When both the Gentiles and the Jews (together with their rulers) made ¹  an attempt to mistreat ²  them and stone them, ³ 

Not long after this, a hurricane-force ¹  wind called the northeaster ²  blew down from the island. ³ 

If two men ¹  get into a hand-to-hand fight, and the wife of one of them gets involved to help her husband against his attacker, and she reaches out her hand and grabs his genitals, ² 

You have stolen my heart, ¹  my sister, ²  my bride! You have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, ³  with one jewel of your necklace.

The Lord who commands armies is about to beat them ¹  with a whip, similar to the way he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb. ²  He will use his staff against the sea, lifting it up as he did in Egypt. ³ 

I said, ¹  “Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach! ²  I writhe in anguish. Oh, the pain in my heart! ³  My heart pounds within me. I cannot keep silent. For I hear the sound of the trumpet; ⁴  the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul! ⁵ 

He is like a man ¹  building a house, who dug down deep, ²  and laid the foundation on bedrock. When ³  a flood came, the river ⁴  burst against that house but ⁵  could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁶ 

But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice ¹  is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When ²  the river burst against that house, ³  it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!” ⁴ 

Remember what ¹  I told you, ‘A slave ²  is not greater than his master.’ ³  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed ⁴  my word, they will obey ⁵  yours too.

Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.

realizing that law ¹  is not intended for a righteous person, but for lawless and rebellious people, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,