⁵ Save us and help us with your right hand,^(K)
    that those you love^(L) may be delivered.
⁶ God has spoken from his sanctuary:
    “In triumph I will parcel out Shechem^(M)
    and measure off the Valley of Sukkoth.^(N)
7 Gilead^(O) is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
    Ephraim^(P) is my helmet,
    Judah^(Q) is my scepter.^(R)
8 Moab is my washbasin,
    on Edom I toss my sandal;
    over Philistia I shout in triumph.^(S)”

⁹ Who will bring me to the fortified city?
    Who will lead me to Edom?
¹⁰ Is it not you, God, you who have now rejected us
    and no longer go out with our armies?^(T)
11 Give us aid against the enemy,
    for human help is worthless.^(U)
12 With God we will gain the victory,
    and he will trample down our enemies.^(V)

⁴ “But I have been the Lord your God
    ever since you came out of Egypt.^(M)
You shall acknowledge^(N) no God but me,^(O)
    no Savior^(P) except me.
⁵ I cared for you in the wilderness,^(Q)
    in the land of burning heat.
⁶ When I fed them, they were satisfied;
    when they were satisfied, they became proud;^(R)
    then they forgot^(S) me.^(T)
7 So I will be like a lion^(U) to them,
    like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
⁸ Like a bear robbed of her cubs,^(V)
    I will attack them and rip them open;
like a lion^(W) I will devour them—
    a wild animal will tear them apart.^(X)

⁹ “You are destroyed, Israel,
    because you are against me,^(Y) against your helper.^(Z)
10 Where is your king,^(AA) that he may save you?
    Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
    ‘Give me a king and princes’?^(AB)
11 So in my anger I gave you a king,^(AC)
    and in my wrath I took him away.^(AD)
12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
    his sins are kept on record.^(AE)
13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth^(AF) come to him,
    but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time^(AG) arrives,
    he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.^(AH)

¹⁴ “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;^(AI)
    I will redeem them from death.^(AJ)
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction?^(AK)

“I will have no compassion,
¹⁵     even though he thrives^(AL) among his brothers.
An east wind^(AM) from the Lord will come,
    blowing in from the desert;
his spring will fail
    and his well dry up.^(AN)
His storehouse will be plundered^(AO)
    of all its treasures.
¹⁶ The people of Samaria^(AP) must bear their guilt,^(AQ)
    because they have rebelled^(AR) against their God.
They will fall by the sword;^(AS)
    their little ones will be dashed^(AT) to the ground,
    their pregnant women^(AU) ripped open.”^[b]

³ Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward^(F) from him.
⁴ Like arrows^(G) in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.
⁵ Blessed is the man
    whose quiver is full of them.^(H)
They will not be put to shame
    when they contend with their opponents^(I) in court.^(J)

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
    in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

“God will bring into judgment^(A)
    both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
    a time to judge every deed.”^(B)

I saw the tears of the oppressed—
    and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
    and they have no comforter.^(J)
2 And I declared that the dead,^(K)
    who had already died,
are happier than the living,
    who are still alive.^(L)
3 But better than both
    is the one who has never been born,^(M)
who has not seen the evil
    that is done under the sun.^(N)

⁵ Fools fold their hands^(P)
    and ruin themselves.
⁶ Better one handful with tranquillity
    than two handfuls with toil^(Q)
    and chasing after the wind.

⁸ There was a man all alone;
    he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
    yet his eyes were not content^(R) with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
    “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
    a miserable business!