But bring your youngest brother back to me so I will know ¹  that you are honest men and not spies. ²  Then I will give your brother back to you and you may move about freely in the land.’” ³ 

Indeed, ¹  your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

So I will extend my hand ¹  and strike Egypt with all my wonders ²  that I will do among them, and after that he will release you. ³ 

¹ Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, ²  the God of Israel, ‘Release ³  my people so that they may hold a pilgrim feast ⁴  to me in the desert.’”

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord ¹  that ²  I should obey him ³  by releasing ⁴  Israel? I do not know the Lord, ⁵  and I will not release Israel!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, ¹  for compelled by my strong hand ²  he will release them, and by my strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” ³ 

Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long ¹  will this man be a menace ²  to us? Release the people so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not know ³  that Egypt is destroyed?”

He said to them, “The Lord will need to be with you ¹  if I release you and your dependents! ²  Watch out! ³  Trouble is right in front of you! ⁴ 

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt; after that he will release you from this place. When he releases you, ²  he will drive you out completely ³  from this place.

but if only a few years remain ¹  until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption.

I will send the wild animals ¹  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ²  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ³  so that your roads will become deserted.

You should make images of the sores and images of the mice ¹  that are destroying the land. You should honor the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his grip on you, your gods, and your land. ² 

then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself, ¹  because you have fallen into your neighbor’s power: ²  go, humble yourself, ³  and appeal firmly ⁴  to your neighbor.

He feeds on ashes; ¹  his deceived mind misleads him. He cannot rescue himself, nor does he say, ‘Is this not a false god I hold in my right hand?’ ² 

The Lord said, “Jerusalem, ¹  I will surely send you away for your own good. I will surely ²  bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.

The Lord says, “I will restore the ruined houses of the descendants of Jacob. I will show compassion on their ruined homes. ¹  Every city will be rebuilt on its former ruins. ²  Every fortified dwelling will occupy its traditional site. ³ 

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant ¹  with all the people in Jerusalem ²  to grant their slaves their freedom.

Recently, however, you yourselves ¹  showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. ² 

The end is now upon you, and I will release my anger against you; I will judge ¹  you according to your behavior, ²  I will hold you accountable for ³  all your abominable practices.

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.”