³ Our God comes; he ^(F)does not keep silence;^[a]
    before him is a devouring ^(G)fire,
    around him a mighty tempest.
^4 (H)He calls to the heavens above
    and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
⁵ “Gather to me my faithful ones,
    who made ^(I)a covenant with me by sacrifice!”
^6 (J)The heavens declare his righteousness,
    for ^(K)God himself is judge! Selah

^7 (L)“Hear, O my people, and I will speak;
    O Israel, I will testify against you.
    ^(M)I am God, your God.
⁸ Not for your sacrifices ^(N)do I rebuke you;
    your burnt offerings are continually before me.
⁹ I will not accept a bull from your house
    or goats from your folds.
¹⁰ For every beast of the forest is mine,
    the cattle on a thousand hills.
^11 (O)I know all the birds of the hills,
    and all that moves in the field is mine.

¹² “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
    ^(P)for the world and its fullness are mine.
¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls
    or drink the blood of goats?
^14 (Q)Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,^[b]
    and ^(R)perform your vows to the Most High,
¹⁵ and ^(S)call upon me in the day of trouble;
    I will ^(T)deliver you, and you shall ^(U)glorify me.”

¹⁶ But to the wicked God says:
    “What right have you to recite my statutes
    or take my covenant on your lips?
^17 (V)For you hate discipline,
    ^(W)and you cast my words behind you.
¹⁸ If you see a thief, ^(X)you are pleased with him,
    ^(Y)and you keep company with adulterers.

¹⁹ “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    ^(Z)and your tongue frames deceit.
²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother's son.
²¹ These things you have done, and I ^(AA)have been silent;
    you thought that I^[c] was one like yourself.
But now I ^(AB)rebuke you and ^(AC)lay the charge before you.

²² “Mark this, then, you who ^(AD)forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be ^(AE)none to deliver!
²³ The one who ^(AF)offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who ^(AG)orders his way rightly
    I will show the ^(AH)salvation of God!”

^13 (A)Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
    break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord ^(B)has comforted his people
    and will have compassion on his afflicted.

¹⁴ But Zion said, ^(C)“The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”

^15 (D)“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.
¹⁶ Behold, ^(E)I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
    your walls are continually before me.
¹⁷ Your builders make haste;^{[a]
    (F)}your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
^18 (G)Lift up your eyes around and see;
    they all gather, they come to you.
^(H)As I live, declares the Lord,
    ^(I)you shall put them all on as an ornament;
    you shall bind them on as a bride does.

¹⁹ “Surely your waste and your desolate places
    and your devastated land—
^(J)surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
    and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
^20 (K)The children of your bereavement
    will yet say in your ears:
^(L)‘The place is too narrow for me;
    make room for me to dwell in.’
²¹ Then you will say in your heart:
    ‘Who has borne me these?
^(M)I was bereaved and barren,
    exiled and put away,
    but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
    from where have these come?’”

²² Thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
    ^(N)and raise my signal to the peoples;
^(O)and they shall bring your sons in their arms,^[b]
    and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
^23 (P)Kings shall be your foster fathers,
    and their queens your nursing mothers.
^(Q)With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
    and ^(R)lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
    ^(S)those who wait for me ^(T)shall not be put to shame.”