But you must require ¹  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ²  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ³  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’

The Israelite foremen saw ¹  that they ²  were in trouble when they were told, ³  “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel’s territory. ¹  Hazael attacked their eastern border. ² 

If he takes another wife, ¹  he must not diminish the first one’s food, ²  her clothing, or her marital rights. ³ 

Will your idle talk ¹  reduce people to silence, ²  and will no one rebuke ³  you when you mock? ⁴ 

“If this is not so, who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?” ¹ 

Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure. ¹  Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing. ² 

Remember that you have made me as with ¹  the clay; will ²  you return me to dust?

Consider the work of God: For who can make straight what he has bent?

The Lord said, ¹  “I will make Jerusalem ²  a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ³  I will destroy the towns of Judah so that no one will be able to live in them.”

I will lay waste your cities; and you will become desolate. Then you will know that I am the Lord!

I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate ruin; ¹  I will cut off ²  from it the one who passes through or returns.

I will turn you into a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

For I will give you the words ¹  along with the wisdom ²  that none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

God chose ¹  what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something,

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all share the one bread.

Animals torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I always absorbed the loss myself. ¹  You always made me pay for every missing animal, ²  whether it was taken by day or at night.

The more years there are, ¹  the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, ²  the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of ³  produce.

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.

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