The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Psalms
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Psalm 113
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(Alleluia.)
1
When Israel came out of Egypt, and the sons of Jacob heard no more a strange language,
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the Lord took Juda for his sanctuary, Israel for his own dominion.
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The seas fled at the sight they witnessed, backward flowed the stream of Jordan;
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up leapt, like rams, the startled mountains, up leapt the hills, like yearling sheep.
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What ailed you, seas, that you fled in terror, Jordan’s stream, what drove thee back?
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Why did you leap up like rams, you mountains, leap up, you hills, like yearling sheep?
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Let earth thrill at its Master’s presence; it is he that comes, the God of Jacob,
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who turned the rock into pools of water, the flint-stone into a springing well.

9
Not to us, Lord, not to us the glory; let thy name alone be honoured;
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thine the merciful, thine the faithful; why must the heathen say, Their God deserts them?
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Our God is a God that dwells in heaven; all that his will designs, he executes.
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The heathen have silver idols and golden, gods which the hands of men have fashioned.
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They have mouths, and yet are silent; eyes they have, and yet are sightless;
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ears they have, and want all hearing; noses, and yet no smell can reach them;
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hands unfeeling, feet unstirring; never a sound their throats may utter.
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Such be the end of all who make them, such the reward of all who trust them.
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It is the Lord that gives hope to the race of Israel, their only help, their only stronghold;
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the Lord that gives hope to the race of Aaron, their only help, their only stronghold;
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the Lord that gives hope to all who fear him, their only help, their only stronghold.
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The Lord keeps us in mind, and grants us blessing, blesses the race of Israel, blesses the race of Aaron;
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all those who fear the Lord, small and great alike, he blesses.
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Still may the Lord grant you increase, you and your children after you;
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the blessing of the Lord be upon you. It is he that made both heaven and earth;
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to the Lord belongs the heaven of heavens, the earth he gives to the children of men.
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From the dead, Lord, thou hast no praises, the men who go down into the place of silence;
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but we bless the Lord, we, the living, from this day to all eternity.