צ (Tsade) For no good reason ¹  my enemies hunted me down ²  like a bird.

If I lift myself up, ¹  you hunt me as a fierce lion, ²  and again ³  you display your power ⁴  against me.

“Do you hunt prey for the lioness, and satisfy the appetite ¹  of the lions,

Therefore, take your weapons – your quiver and your bow – and go out into the open fields and hunt down some wild game ¹  for me.

A slanderer ¹  will not endure on ²  the earth; calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down. ³ 

for on account ¹  of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man ²  preys on your precious life. ³ 

צ (Tsade) Our enemies ¹  hunted us down at every step ²  so that we could not walk about in our streets. Our end drew near, our days were numbered, ³  for our end had come!

and say ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Woe to those who sew bands ¹  on all their wrists ²  and make headbands ³  for heads of every size to entrap people’s lives! ⁴  Will you entrap my people’s lives, yet preserve your own lives?

“‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Take note ¹  that I am against your wristbands with which you entrap people’s lives ²  like birds. I will tear them from your arms and will release the people’s lives, which you hunt like birds.

Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. ¹  When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, ² 

This bread of ours was warm when we packed it in our homes the day we started out to meet you, ¹  but now it is dry and hard. ² 

Faithful men have disappeared ¹  from the land; there are no godly men left. ²  They all wait in ambush so they can shed blood; ³  they hunt their own brother with a net. ⁴ 

Isaac began to shake violently ¹  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ²  He will indeed be blessed!”

“‘Any man from the Israelites ¹  or from the foreigners who reside ²  in their ³  midst who hunts a wild animal ⁴  or a bird that may be eaten ⁵  must pour out its blood and cover it with soil,

But for now I, the Lord, say: ¹  “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. ²