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How can I lay a curse on the one whom God has not cursed?
    How denounce the one whom the Lord has not denounced?
For from the top of the crags I see him,
    from the heights I behold him.
Here is a people that lives apart[a]
    and does not reckon itself among the nations.
10 Who has ever counted the dust of Jacob,
    who numbered Israel’s dust-cloud?[b]
May I die the death of the just,
    may my end be like theirs!

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Footnotes

  1. 23:9 A people that lives apart: that is, “securely”; cf. Dt 33:28.
  2. 23:10 The dust of Jacob…Israel’s dust-cloud: the Israelites will be as numerous as the dust kicked up by Israel in its march through the wilderness.

How can I curse
    those whom God has not cursed?(A)
How can I denounce
    those whom the Lord has not denounced?(B)
From the rocky peaks I see them,
    from the heights I view them.(C)
I see a people who live apart
    and do not consider themselves one of the nations.(D)
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob(E)
    or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,(F)
    and may my final end be like theirs!(G)

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