^137 (A)Righteous are you, O Lord,
    and right are your rules.
¹³⁸ You have appointed your testimonies in ^(B)righteousness
    and in all ^(C)faithfulness.
¹³⁹ My ^(D)zeal consumes me,
    because my foes forget your words.
¹⁴⁰ Your promise is well ^(E)tried,
    and your servant ^(F)loves it.
¹⁴¹ I am small and despised,
    yet I do not ^(G)forget your precepts.
¹⁴² Your righteousness is righteous forever,
    and your law is ^(H)true.
¹⁴³ Trouble and anguish have found me out,
    but your commandments are my ^(I)delight.
¹⁴⁴ Your testimonies are righteous forever;
    ^(J)give me understanding that I may ^(K)live.

^5 (A)“Look among the nations, and see;
    wonder and be astounded.
^(B)For I am doing a work in your days
    that you would not believe if told.
⁶ For behold, ^(C)I am raising up the Chaldeans,
    that bitter and hasty nation,
^(D)who march through the breadth of the earth,
    ^(E)to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷ They are dreaded and fearsome;
    ^(F)their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
^8 (G)Their horses are swifter than leopards,
    more fierce than ^(H)the evening wolves;
    their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
    ^(I)they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
⁹ They all come ^(J)for violence,
    all their faces forward.
    They gather captives ^(K)like sand.
¹⁰ At kings they scoff,
    and at rulers they laugh.
^(L)They laugh at every fortress,
    for ^(M)they pile up earth and take it.
¹¹ Then they sweep by like the wind and go on,
    ^(N)guilty men, ^(O)whose own might is their god!”

¹² Are you not ^(P)from everlasting,
    O Lord my God, my Holy One?
    ^(Q)We shall not die.
O Lord, ^(R)you have ordained them as a judgment,
    and you, O ^(S)Rock, have established them for reproof.
¹³ You who are ^(T)of purer eyes than to see evil
    and cannot look at wrong,
^(U)why do you idly look at traitors
    and ^(V)remain silent when the wicked swallows up
    the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴ You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
    like crawling things that have no ruler.
^15 (W)He^[a] brings all of them up ^(X)with a hook;
    he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
    so he rejoices and is glad.
^16 (Y)Therefore he sacrifices to his net
    and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,^[b]
    and his food is rich.
¹⁷ Is he then to keep on emptying his net
    ^(Z)and mercilessly killing nations forever?