⁴ Listen, a noise on the mountains,
    like that of a great multitude!^(A)
Listen, an uproar^(B) among the kingdoms,
    like nations massing together!
The Lord Almighty^(C) is mustering^(D)
    an army for war.

⁶ which in anger struck down peoples^(A)
    with unceasing blows,
and in fury subdued^(B) nations
    with relentless aggression.^(C)

Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,^(C)
    to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive^(D) nation of strange speech,
    whose land is divided by rivers.^(E)

from a people tall and smooth-skinned,^(B)
    from a people feared^(C) far and wide,
an aggressive nation of strange speech,
    whose land is divided by rivers^(D)—

²⁸ His breath^(A) is like a rushing torrent,^(B)
    rising up to the neck.^(C)
He shakes the nations in the sieve^(D) of destruction;
    he places in the jaws of the peoples
    a bit^(E) that leads them astray.