A Prayer of Thanks to God
1 You, Lord, are my God!
I will praise you
for doing the wonderful things
you had planned and promised
since ancient times.
2 You have destroyed the fortress
of our enemies,
leaving their city in ruins.
Nothing in that foreign city
will ever be rebuilt.
3 Now strong and cruel nations
will fear and honor you.
4 You have been a place of safety
for the poor and needy
in times of trouble.
Brutal enemies pounded us
like a heavy rain
or the heat of the sun at noon,
but you were our shelter.
5 Those wild foreigners struck
like scorching desert heat.
But you were like a cloud,
protecting us from the sun.
You kept our enemies from singing
songs of victory.
The Lord Has Saved Us
6 On this mountain
the Lord All-Powerful
will prepare for all nations
a feast of the finest foods.
Choice wines and the best meats
will be served.
7 Here the Lord will strip away
the burial clothes
that cover the nations.
8 The Lord All-Powerful
will destroy the power of death
and wipe away all tears.
No longer will his people
be insulted everywhere.
The Lord has spoken!
9 At that time, people will say,
“The Lord has saved us!
Let's celebrate.
We waited and hoped—
now our God is here.”
10 The powerful arm of the Lord
will protect this mountain.
The Moabites will be put down
and trampled on like straw
in a pit of manure.
11 They will struggle to get out,
but God will humiliate them
no matter how hard they try.
12 The walls of their fortresses
will be knocked down
and scattered in the dirt.
A Hymn of Praise
1 Lord, you are my God;
I will honor you and praise your name.
You have done amazing things;
you have faithfully carried out
the plans you made long ago.
2 You have turned cities into ruins
and destroyed their fortifications.
The palaces which our enemies built
are gone forever.
3 The people of powerful nations will praise you;
you will be feared in the cities of cruel nations.
4 The poor and the helpless have fled to you
and have been safe in times of trouble.
You give them shelter from storms
and shade from the burning heat.
Cruel enemies attack like a winter storm,
5 like drought in a dry land.
But you, Lord, have silenced our enemies;
you silence the shouts of cruel people,
as a cloud cools a hot day.
God Prepares a Banquet
6 Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of the world—a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine. 7 Here he will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations. 8 The Sovereign Lord will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone's eyes and take away the disgrace his people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord himself has spoken.
9 When it happens, everyone will say, “He is our God! We have put our trust in him, and he has rescued us. He is the Lord! We have put our trust in him, and now we are happy and joyful because he has saved us.”
God Will Punish Moab
10 The Lord will protect Mount Zion, but the people of Moab will be trampled down the way straw is trampled in manure. 11 They will reach out their hands as if they were trying to swim, but God will humiliate them, and their hands will sink helplessly. 12 He will destroy the fortresses of Moab with their high walls and bring them tumbling down into the dust.
