“Listen, you deaf ones! Take notice, ¹  you blind ones!

When one looks out over the land, he sees ¹  distress and darkness, gloom ²  and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land. ³ 

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

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 

I looked, but there was no one to help; I was shocked because there was no one offering support. ¹  So my right arm accomplished deliverance; my raging anger drove me on. ² 

They have stringed instruments, ¹  tambourines, flutes, and wine at their parties. So they do not recognize what the Lord is doing, they do not perceive what he is bringing about. ² 

At that time ¹  they will growl over their prey, ²  it will sound like sea waves crashing against rocks. ³  One will look out over the land and see the darkness of disaster, clouds will turn the light into darkness. ⁴ 

For this is what the Lord has told me: “I will wait ¹  and watch from my place, like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, ²  like a cloud of mist ³  in the heat ⁴  of harvest.” ⁵ 

You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool – but you did not trust in ¹  the one who made it; ²  you did not depend on ³  the one who formed it long ago!

“I thought, ‘I will no longer see the Lord ¹  in the land of the living, I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world. ² 

“Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, ¹  who seek the Lord! Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry ²  from which you were dug! ³ 

Look down from heaven and take notice, from your holy, majestic palace! Where are your zeal ¹  and power? Do not hold back your tender compassion! ² 

Lord, do not be too angry! Do not hold our sins against us continually! ¹  Take a good look at your people, at all of us! ² 

Look up at the sky! Look at the earth below! For the sky will dissipate ¹  like smoke, and the earth will wear out like clothes; its residents will die like gnats. But the deliverance I give ²  is permanent; the vindication I provide ³  will not disappear. ⁴ 

My hand made them; ¹  that is how they came to be,” ²  says the Lord. I show special favor ³  to the humble and contrite, who respect what I have to say. ⁴