Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them. ¹  For he has defied the armies of the living God!”

I am willing to shame and humiliate myself even more than this! ¹  But with the slave girls whom you mentioned let me be distinguished!”

So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed, ¹  and then sent them away.

Certainly you will not refuse one of my master’s minor officials and trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen. ¹ 

“This is what Hezekiah says: ¹  ‘This is a day of distress, insults, ²  and humiliation, ³  as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ⁴ 

The Lord was angry at Judah and Jerusalem and made them an appalling object of horror at which people hiss out their scorn, ¹  as you can see with your own eyes.

But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his warnings, ¹  and ridiculed his prophets. ²  Finally the Lord got very angry at his people and there was no one who could prevent his judgment. ³ 

I prayed, ¹  “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God! For our iniquities have climbed higher than our heads, and our guilt extends to the heavens.

Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile!

Then I ¹  said, “The thing that you are doing is wrong! ²  Should you not conduct yourselves ³  in the fear of our God in order to avoid the reproach of the Gentiles who are our enemies?

He had been hired to scare me so that I would do this and thereby sin. They would thus bring reproach on me and I ¹  would be discredited. ² 

And this very day the noble ladies of Persia and Media who have heard the matter concerning the queen will respond in the same way to all the royal officials, and there will be more than enough contempt and anger!

Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; ¹  my neighbors are appalled by my suffering ²  – those who know me are horrified by my condition; ³  those who see me in the street run away from me.

¹ The sinful nation is as good as dead, ²  the people weighed down by evil deeds. They are offspring who do wrong, children ³  who do wicked things. They have abandoned the Lord, and rejected the Holy One of Israel. ⁴  They are alienated from him. ⁵ 

Now the Lord makes this announcement: “Within exactly three years ¹  Moab’s splendor will disappear, along with all her many people; there will be just a few, insignificant survivors left.” ² 

The full moon will be covered up, ¹  the bright sun ²  will be darkened; ³  for the Lord who commands armies will rule ⁴  on Mount Zion in Jerusalem ⁵  in the presence of his assembly, in majestic splendor. ⁶ 

he will swallow up death permanently. ¹  The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ² 

The land ¹  dries up ²  and withers away; the forest of Lebanon shrivels up ³  and decays. Sharon ⁴  is like the desert; ⁵  Bashan and Carmel ⁶  are parched. ⁷ 

“This is what Hezekiah says: ¹  ‘This is a day of distress, insults, ²  and humiliation, ³  as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ⁴ 

I was angry at my people; I defiled my special possession and handed them over to you. You showed them no mercy; ¹  you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ²