Your throne has been secure from ancient times; you have always been king. ¹ 

The Lord created ¹  me as the beginning ²  of his works, ³  before his deeds of long ago.

This is the message the Lord previously announced about Moab.

You are awesome! Yes, you! Who can withstand your intense anger? ¹ 

The evergreens also rejoice over your demise, ¹  as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing, ²  ‘Since you fell asleep, ³  no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’ ⁴ 

“I announced events beforehand, ¹  I issued the decrees and made the predictions; ²  suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

Now they come into being, ¹  not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, ²  I know about them.’

Hail fell ¹  and fire mingled ²  with the hail; the hail was so severe ³  that there had not been any like it ⁴  in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.

She asked, ¹  ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather ²  grain among the bundles?’ ³  Since she arrived she has been working hard ⁴  from this morning until now ⁵  – except for ⁶  sitting ⁷  in the resting hut ⁸  a short time.” ⁹ 

Don’t panic! Don’t be afraid! ¹  Did I not tell you beforehand and decree it? You are my witnesses! Is there any God but me? There is no other sheltering rock; ²  I know of none.

I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, ‘My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

From the time ¹  Potiphar ²  appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed ³  the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both ⁴  in his house and in his fields. ⁵ 

Then Moses said to the Lord, ¹  “O ²  my Lord, ³  I am not an eloquent man, ⁴  neither in the past ⁵  nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” ⁶ 

But you will be able to counter the advice of Ahithophel if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king! Previously I was your father’s servant, and now I will be your servant.’

Tell me! Present the evidence! ¹  Let them consult with one another! Who predicted this in the past? Who announced it beforehand? Was it not I, the Lord? I have no peer, there is no God but me, a God who vindicates and delivers; ²  there is none but me.

You did not hear, you do not know, you were not told beforehand. ¹  For I know that you are very deceitful; ²  you were labeled ³  a rebel from birth.

So now, look, the Lord has preserved my life, just as he promised, these past forty-five years since the Lord spoke these words to Moses, during which Israel traveled through the wilderness. Now look, I am today eighty-five years old.