²⁶ Hast thou not heard from afar? -- it I did, From days of old -- that I formed it. Now, I have brought it in, And it is to make desolate, Ruinous heaps -- fenced cities,

⁸ and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence -- who are stumbling at the word, being unbelieving, -- to which also they were set;

²⁷ for gathered together of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, were both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with nations and peoples of Israel,

²⁸ to do whatever Thy hand and Thy counsel did determine before to come to pass.

²³ this one, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, being given out, having taken by lawless hands, having crucified -- ye did slay;

¹⁵ -- Doth the axe glorify itself Against him who is hewing with it? Doth the saw magnify itself Against him who is shaking it? As a rod waving those lifting it up! As a staff lifting up that which is not wood!

⁵ Wo `to' Asshur, a rod of Mine anger, And a staff in their hand `is' Mine indignation.

⁶ Against a profane nation I send him, And concerning a people of My wrath I charge him, To spoil spoil, and to seize prey, And to make it a treading-place as the clay of out places.

⁴ for there did come in unobserved certain men, long ago having been written beforehand to this judgment, impious, the grace of our God perverting to lasciviousness, and our only Master, God, and Lord -- Jesus Christ -- denying,

⁶ Is a trumpet blown in a city, And do people not tremble? Is there affliction in a city, And Jehovah hath not done `it'?

¹⁰ Declaring from the beginning the latter end, And from of old that which hath not been done, Saying, `My counsel doth stand, And all My delight I do.'

¹¹ Calling from the east a ravenous bird, From a far land the man of My counsel, Yea, I have spoken, yea, I bring it in, I have formed `it', yea, I do it.

⁷ Forming light, and preparing darkness, Making peace, and preparing evil, I `am' Jehovah, doing all these things.'

¹ O Jehovah, my God `art' Thou, I exalt Thee, I confess Thy name, For Thou hast done a wonderful thing, Counsels of old, stedfastness, O stedfast One.

² For Thou didst make of a city a heap, Of a fenced city a ruin, A high place of strangers from `being' a city, To the age it is not built.

¹⁰ For the fierceness of man praiseth Thee, The remnant of fierceness Thou girdest on.

¹³ Arise, O Jehovah, go before his face, Cause him to bend. Deliver my soul from the wicked, Thy sword,

²⁰ As for you, ye devised against me evil -- God devised it for good, in order to do as `at' this day, to keep alive a numerous people;