If I had not found encouragement in your law, ¹  I would have died in my sorrow. ² 

If the Lord had not helped me, I would have laid down in the silence of death. ¹ 

if the Lord had not been on our side, when men attacked us, ¹ 

He threatened ¹  to destroy them, but ²  Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him ³  and turned back his destructive anger. ⁴ 

A song of ascents, ²  by David. “If the Lord had not been on our side” – let Israel say this! –

If the Lord who commands armies ¹  had not left us a few survivors, we would have quickly become like Sodom, ²  we would have become like Gomorrah.

But I fear the reaction ¹  of their enemies, for ²  their adversaries would misunderstand and say, “Our power is great, ³  and the Lord has not done all this!”’

If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears ¹  – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, ²  and he rebuked you last night.”

Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives – he who has prevented me from harming you – if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!”

Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all ¹  lives (whom I serve), ²  if I did not respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah, ³  I would not pay attention to you or acknowledge you. ⁴