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    fairest of heights,
    the joy of all the earth,(A)
    Mount Zion, the heights of Zaphon,[a](B)
    the city of the great king.

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Footnotes

  1. 48:3 The heights of Zaphon: the mountain abode of the Canaanite storm-god Baal in comparable texts. To speak of Zion as if it were Zaphon was to claim for Israel’s God what Canaanites claimed for Baal. Though topographically speaking Zion is only a hill, viewed religiously it towers over other mountains as the home of the supreme God (cf. Ps 68:16–17).

God is in her citadels;(A)
    he has shown himself to be her fortress.(B)

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12 Were I hungry, I would not tell you,
    for mine is the world and all that fills it.(A)

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12 If I were hungry I would not tell you,
    for the world(A) is mine, and all that is in it.(B)

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16 Their land shall be made a waste,
    an object of endless hissing:[a]
All passersby will be horrified,
    shaking their heads.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 18:16 Hissing: in some ancient Near Eastern cultures hissing was not only a sign of derision but a magical means of keeping demons away; people hissed in order to ward off danger, like whistling in a cemetery.

16 Their land will be an object of horror(A)
    and of lasting scorn;(B)
all who pass by will be appalled(C)
    and will shake their heads.(D)

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