The LORD’s Power Shown in Leviathan

¹“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hookor tie down his tongue with a rope?

²Can you put a cord through his noseor pierce his jaw with a hook?

³Will he beg you for mercyor speak to you softly?

⁴Will he make a covenant with youto take him as a slave for life?

⁵Can you pet him like a birdor put him on a leash for your maidens?

⁶Will traders barter for himor divide him among the merchants?

⁷Can you fill his hide with harpoonsor his head with fishing spears?

⁸If you lay a hand on him,you will remember the battle and never repeat it!

⁹Surely hope of overcoming him is false.Is not the sight of him overwhelming?

¹⁰No one is so fierce as to rouse Leviathan.Then who is able to stand against Me?

¹¹Who has given to Me that I should repay him?Everything under heaven is Mine.

¹²I cannot keep silent about his limbs,his power and graceful form.

¹³Who can strip off his outer coat?Who can approach him with a bridle?

¹⁴Who can open his jaws,ringed by his fearsome teeth?

¹⁵His rows of scales are his pride,tightly sealed together.

¹⁶One scale is so near to anotherthat no air can pass between them.

¹⁷They are joined to one another;they clasp and cannot be separated.

¹⁸His snorting flashes with light,and his eyes are like the rays of dawn.

¹⁹Firebrands stream from his mouth;fiery sparks shoot forth!

²⁰Smoke billows from his nostrilsas from a boiling pot over burning reeds.

²¹His breath sets coals ablaze,and flames pour from his mouth.

²²Strength resides in his neck,and dismay leaps before him.

²³The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;they are firm and immovable.

²⁴His chest is as hard as a rock,as hard as a lower millstone!

²⁵When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified;they withdraw before his thrashing.

²⁶The sword that reaches him has no effect,nor does the spear or dart or arrow.

²⁷He regards iron as strawand bronze as rotten wood.

²⁸No arrow can make him flee;slingstones become like chaff to him.

²⁹A club is regarded as straw,and he laughs at the sound of the lance.

³⁰His undersides are jagged potsherds,spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge.

³¹He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

³²He leaves a glistening wake behind him;one would think the deep had white hair!

³³Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature devoid of fear!

³⁴He looks down on all the haughty;he is king over all the proud.”

Jonah’s Prayer

¹From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God,

²saying:“In my distress I called to the LORD,and He answered me.From the belly of Sheol I called for help,and You heard my voice.

³For You cast me into the deep,into the heart of the seas,and the current swirled about me;all Your breakers and waves swept over me.

⁴At this, I said,‘I have been banished from Your sight;yet I will look once moretoward Your holy temple.’

⁵The waters engulfed meto take my life;the watery depths closed around me;the seaweed wrapped around my head.

⁶To the roots of the mountains I descended;the earth beneath me barred me in forever!But You raised my life from the pit,O LORD my God!

⁷As my life was fading away,I remembered the LORD.My prayer went up to You,to Your holy temple.

⁸Those who cling to worthless idolsforsake His loving devotion.

⁹But I, with the voice of thanksgiving,will sacrifice to You.I will fulfill what I have vowed.Salvation is from the LORD!”

¹⁰And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

The Song of Deborah and Barak

¹On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:

²“When the princes take the lead in Israel,when the people volunteer,bless the LORD.

³Listen, O kings! Give ear, O princes!I will sing to the LORD;I will sing praise to the LORD,the God of Israel.

⁴O LORD, when You went out from Seir,when You marched from the land of Edom,the earth trembled, the heavens poured out rain,and the clouds poured down water.

⁵The mountains quaked before the LORD,the One of Sinai,before the LORD,the God of Israel.

⁶In the days of Shamgar son of Anath,in the days of Jael,the highways were desertedand the travelers took the byways.

⁷Life in the villages ceased;it ended in Israel,until I, Deborah, arose,a mother in Israel.

⁸When they chose new gods,then war came to their gates.Not a shield or spear was foundamong forty thousand in Israel.

⁹My heart is with the princes of Israel,with the volunteers among the people.Bless the LORD!

¹⁰You who ride white donkeys,who sit on saddle blankets,and you who travel the road,ponder

¹¹the voices of the singersat the watering places.There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD,the righteous deeds of His villagersin Israel.Then the people of the LORDwent down to the gates:

¹²‘Awake, awake, O Deborah!Awake, awake, sing a song!Arise, O Barak,and take hold of your captives, O son of Abinoam!’

¹³Then the survivors came down to the nobles;the people of the LORD came down to me against the mighty.

¹⁴Some came from Ephraim, with their roots in Amalek;Benjamin came with your people after you.The commanders came down from Machir,the bearers of the marshal’s staff from Zebulun.

¹⁵The princes of Issachar were with Deborah,and Issachar was with Barak,rushing into the valley at his heels.In the clans of Reubenthere was great indecision.

¹⁶Why did you sit among the sheepfoldsto hear the whistling for the flocks?In the clans of Reubenthere was great indecision.

¹⁷Gilead remained beyond the Jordan.Dan, why did you linger by the ships?Asher stayed at the coastand remained in his harbors.

¹⁸Zebulun was a people who risked their lives;Naphtali, too, on the heights of the battlefield.

¹⁹Kings came and fought;then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanachby the waters of Megiddo,but they took no plunder of silver.

²⁰From the heavens the stars fought;from their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹The River Kishon swept them away,the ancient river, the River Kishon.March on, O my soul, in strength!

²²Then the hooves of horses thundered—the mad galloping of his stallions.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the LORD.‘Bitterly curse her inhabitants;for they did not come to help the LORD,to help the LORD against the mighty.’

²⁴Most blessed among women is Jael,the wife of Heber the Kenite,most blessed of tent-dwelling women.

²⁵He asked for water, and she gave him milk.In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds.

²⁶She reached for the tent peg,her right hand for the workman’s hammer.She struck Sisera and crushed his skull;she shattered and pierced his temple.

²⁷At her feet he collapsed, he fell,there he lay still;at her feet he collapsed, he fell;where he collapsed, there he fell dead.

²⁸Sisera’s mother looked through the window;she peered through the lattice and lamented:‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?What has delayed the clatter of his chariots?’

²⁹Her wisest ladies answer;indeed she keeps telling herself,

³⁰‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil—a girl or two for each warrior,a plunder of dyed garments for Sisera,the spoil of embroidered garmentsfor the neck of the looter?’

³¹So may all Your enemies perish,O LORD!But may those who love Youshine like the sun at its brightest.”And the land had rest for forty years.

Save Me by Your Name

¹Save me, O God, by Your name,and vindicate me by Your might!

²Hear my prayer, O God;listen to the words of my mouth.

³For strangers rise up against me,and ruthless men seek my life—men with no regard for God.Selah

⁴Surely God is my helper;the Lord is the sustainer of my soul.

⁵He will reward my enemies with evil.In Your faithfulness, destroy them.

⁶Freely I will sacrifice to You;I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good.

⁷For He has delivered me from every trouble,and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.