At the fords of the Arnon ¹  the Moabite women are like a bird that flies about when forced from its nest. ² 

Like a frightened gazelle ¹  or a sheep with no shepherd, each will turn toward home, ²  each will run to his homeland.

“Look, I am making you like ¹  a sharp threshing sledge, new and double-edged. ²  You will thresh the mountains and crush them; you will make the hills like straw. ³ 

He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the hollow of his hand; he made me like a sharpened ¹  arrow, he hid me in his quiver. ² 

The nations will be burned to ashes; ¹  like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.

But the wicked are like a surging sea that is unable to be quiet; its waves toss up mud and sand.

Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales. He lifts ¹  the coastlands ²  as if they were dust.

I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ¹  who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’ You made your back like the ground, and like the street for those who walked over you.”

I will threaten Ariel, and she will mourn intensely and become like an altar hearth ¹  before me.

Let the desert and dry region be happy; ¹  let the wilderness ²  rejoice and bloom like a lily!

He was treated harshly and afflicted, ¹  but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth. ² 

I did this ¹  because I know how stubborn you are. Your neck muscles are like iron and your forehead like bronze. ² 

For this is what the Lord says: “Look, I am ready to extend to her prosperity that will flow like a river, the riches of nations will flow into her like a stream that floods its banks. ¹  You will nurse from her breast ²  and be carried at her side; you will play on her knees.

For look, the Lord comes with fire, his chariots come like a windstorm, ¹  to reveal his raging anger, his battle cry, and his flaming arrows. ² 

Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to ¹  her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.

A cow and a bear will graze together, their young will lie down together. ¹  A lion, like an ox, will eat straw.

My dwelling place ¹  is removed and taken away ²  from me like a shepherd’s tent. I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth; ³  from the loom he cuts me off. ⁴  You turn day into night and end my life. ⁵ 

For ¹  evil burned like a fire, ²  it consumed thorns and briers; it burned up the thickets of the forest, and they went up in smoke. ³ 

until I come and take you to a land just like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

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,