Psalms

Chapter 113

  1. 1

    When Israel came out of Egypt, and the sons of Jacob heard no more a strange language,

  2. 2

    the Lord took Juda for his sanctuary, Israel for his own dominion.

  3. 3

    The seas fled at the sight they witnessed, backward flowed the stream of Jordan;

  4. 4

    up leapt, like rams, the startled mountains, up leapt the hills, like yearling sheep.

  5. 5

    What ailed you, seas, that you fled in terror, Jordan’s stream, what drove thee back?

  6. 6

    Why did you leap up like rams, you mountains, leap up, you hills, like yearling sheep?

  7. 7

    Let earth thrill at its Master’s presence; it is he that comes, the God of Jacob,

  8. 8

    who turned the rock into pools of water, the flint-stone into a springing well.

  9. 9

    Not to us, Lord, not to us the glory; let thy name alone be honoured;

  10. 10

    thine the merciful, thine the faithful; why must the heathen say, Their God deserts them?

  11. 11

    Our God is a God that dwells in heaven; all that his will designs, he executes.

  12. 12

    The heathen have silver idols and golden, gods which the hands of men have fashioned.

  13. 13

    They have mouths, and yet are silent; eyes they have, and yet are sightless;

  14. 14

    ears they have, and want all hearing; noses, and yet no smell can reach them;

  15. 15

    hands unfeeling, feet unstirring; never a sound their throats may utter.

  16. 16

    Such be the end of all who make them, such the reward of all who trust them.

  17. 17

    It is the Lord that gives hope to the race of Israel, their only help, their only stronghold;

  18. 18

    the Lord that gives hope to the race of Aaron, their only help, their only stronghold;

  19. 19

    the Lord that gives hope to all who fear him, their only help, their only stronghold.

  20. 20

    The Lord keeps us in mind, and grants us blessing, blesses the race of Israel, blesses the race of Aaron;

  21. 21

    all those who fear the Lord, small and great alike, he blesses.

  22. 22

    Still may the Lord grant you increase, you and your children after you;

  23. 23

    the blessing of the Lord be upon you. It is he that made both heaven and earth;

  24. 24

    to the Lord belongs the heaven of heavens, the earth he gives to the children of men.

  25. 25

    From the dead, Lord, thou hast no praises, the men who go down into the place of silence;

  26. 26

    but we bless the Lord, we, the living, from this day to all eternity.