Chapter 134

Praise the Lord’s name; praise the Lord, you that are his servants,

you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts where our God dwells.

Praise to the Lord, a Lord so gracious, praise to his name, a name so well beloved.

Has not the Lord made choice of Jacob, claimed Israel for his own?

Doubt it never, the Lord is great; he, our Master, is higher than all the gods.

In heaven and on earth, in the sea and in the deep waters beneath us, the Lord accomplishes his will;

summoning clouds from the ends of the earth, rain-storm wedding to lightning-flash, bringing winds out of his store-house.

He it was that smote the first-born of the Egyptians, man and beast alike;

what wonders and portents, Egypt, thou didst witness, sent to plague Pharao and all his servants!

He it was that smote nation after nation, and slew the kings in their pride,

Sehon king of the Amorrhites, and Og the king of Basan, and all the rulers of Chanaan,

and marked down their lands for a dwelling-place where his own people of Israel should dwell.

Lord, thy name abides for ever; age succeeds age, and thou art ever unforgotten.

The Lord defends his people, takes pity on his servants.

What are the idols of the heathen but silver and gold, gods which the hands of men have fashioned?

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

ears they have, and want all hearing, never a breath have they in their mouths.

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

Bless the Lord, sons of Israel, bless the Lord, sons of Aaron,

bless the Lord, sons of Levi, bless the Lord, all you that are the Lord’s worshippers.

Here, in Sion his dwelling-place, here, in Jerusalem, let the Lord’s name be blessed.