Woe to the city of blood, full of lies,
full of plunder, never without victims!
The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels,
halloping horses and jolting chariots!
Chargin calvary, flashing swords and glittering spears!
Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number,
people stumbling ofver the corpses--
all because of the wanton lust of a harlot,
alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution
and peoples by her witchcraft.
Sun and moon stood still in the heavens
at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of you flashing spear.
In wrath you strode through the earth and in your anger you threshed the nations.
You came out to deliver your people, to save your annointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
you stripped him from head to foot.
With his own spear you pierced his head
when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,
gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.
You trampled the sea with your horses, churning the great waters.
I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.
Yet I wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.
The Soverign LORD is my strength...
You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down.
Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up,
let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it.
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground.
Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?'
Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?
