<p class="poetry">Half of it he burns in the fire &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">over that half he cooks<n id="1" /> meat;p> <p class="poetry">he roasts a meal and fills himself.p> <p class="poetry">Yes, he warms himself and says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Ah! I am warm as I look at the fire.&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">He prepares to use deadly weapons against him;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">He shot his<n id="1" /> arrows and scattered them,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">many lightning bolts<n id="3" /> and routed them.<n id="4" />p>

He made a grating for the altar, a network of bronze under its ledge, halfway up from the bottom.

<p class="poetry">Let them disappear<n id="1" /> like water that flows away!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Let them wither like grass!<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Their arrows are sharpened,p> <p class="poetry">and all their bows are prepared.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">The hooves of their horses are hard as flint,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and their chariot wheels are like a windstorm.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">No one thinks to himself,p> <p class="poetry">nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;I burned half of it in the fire &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">yes, I baked bread over the coals;p> <p class="poetry">I roasted meat and ate it.p> <p class="poetry">With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?p> <p class="poetry">Should I bow down to dry wood?&#8217;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylonp> <p class="poetry">a host of mighty nations<n id="1" /> from the land of the north.p> <p class="poetry">They will set up their battle lines against her.p> <p class="poetry">They will come from the north and capture her.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">who does not return from the battle empty-handed.<n id="4" />p>

All the people,<n id="1" /> rulers,<n id="2" /> leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the <sc>Lordsc>. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there.<n id="3" /> Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony.<n id="4" />