2 

We have heard thee, O Eternal,

we have seen thee in action.

Strike now, for the years are passing,

reveal thyself now as the years 4 go by,

amid thy wrath remember to be merciful.

3 

God comes from Teman,

the Majestic One from Paran hills,

his splendour over all the sky,

his glory filling all the earth;

4 

his radiance is a lightning blaze,

on either side flash rays . . . . . . . .

and there he veils his might.

5 

Before him Pestilence strides,

behind him the burning Plague.

6 

At his step the earth is shaken,

at his look nations are scattered,

the ancient hills are shattered,

mountains of old sink low,

where he marched long ago,

7 

scaring the tents of Kushan,

shaking the curtained tents of Midian.

15 

Over the sea thou stridest with thy steeds;

the mighty waters surge.

8 

Art angry with the hills, O thou Eternal?

Art wrathful at the sea,

that thou art storming on thy steeds,

upon thy chariots in triumph?

9 

Thy bow [[the clans bound by an oath]] thou barest,

and the land is tom with streams,

10 

the hills writhe at thy sight,

floods pour down from the skies,

the torrents roar,

11 

the sun forgets to rise,

the moon to move,

before the flashes of thy darting arrows,

before the sheen of the lightning, thy lance.

12 

Thou tramplest earth in fury,

threshing the peoples in thine anger,

13 

thou art abroad to rescue thine own nation,

to save thy chosen.

Thou hast unroofed the enemy’s house,

hast laid it bare to the foundations;

14 

thy spears have pierced the warrior chiefs

who stormed out to scatter us--

their joy was to murder us [[poor folk in hiding]].

16 

The sound of this sets our heart shaking,

we listen with lips a-quiver,

our very bones are breaking,

and as we stand we shiver;

yet calmly we await the day of doom

that dawns upon the folk who would assail us.

17 

[[Though the fig-tree may not blossom,

though no fruit is on the vine,

though the olive crop has failed,

though the fields give us no food,

though the folds have lost their flocks,

and in the stalls no cattle lie,

18 

yet in the Eternal we will find our joy,

we will rejoice in the God who saves us.

19 

The Lord, the Eternal, is our strength,

he makes our feet sure as the feet of hinds,

helps us to keep our footing on the heights.]]