Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted! Issue your orders, but they will not be executed! ¹  For God is with us! ² 

Send rams as tribute to the ruler of the land, ¹  from Sela in the desert ²  to the hill of Daughter Zion.

At that time ¹  men will trust in their creator; ²  they will depend on ³  the Holy One of Israel. ⁴ 

They ¹  removed the defenses ²  of Judah. At that time ³  you looked for the weapons in the House of the Forest. ⁴ 

The Lord stretched out his hand over the sea, ¹  he shook kingdoms; he ²  gave the order to destroy Canaan’s fortresses. ³ 

For with mocking lips and a foreign tongue he will speak to these people. ¹ 

This is what the king says: ‘Don’t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you!

Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹  he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ²  with a sword in his own land.”’”

Indeed ¹  Sheol does not give you thanks; death does not ²  praise you. Those who descend into the pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.

The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks, as I do today. A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.

For I am the Lord your God, the one who takes hold of your right hand, who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. From the east I will bring your descendants; from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’ and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’ Bring my sons from distant lands, and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

Turn to me so you can be delivered, ¹  all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer.

Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! ¹  Truly I am God, I have no peer; ²  I am God, and there is none like me,

Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. ¹  When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ²  but I blessed him ³  and gave him numerous descendants. ⁴ 

Make your tent larger, stretch your tent curtains farther out! ¹  Spare no effort, lengthen your ropes, and pound your stakes deep. ² 

many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, so ¹  he can teach us his requirements, ²  and ³  we can follow his standards.” ⁴  For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; ⁵  the Lord will issue edicts from Jerusalem. ⁶ 

Tell him, ‘Make sure you stay calm! ¹  Don’t be afraid! Don’t be intimidated ²  by these two stubs of smoking logs, ³  or by the raging anger of Rezin, Syria, and the son of Remaliah.

that sends messengers by sea, who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus. Go, you swift messengers, to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, ¹  to a people that are feared far and wide, ²  to a nation strong and victorious, ³  whose land rivers divide. ⁴