You gave the weary ¹  no water to drink and from the hungry you withheld food.

Then he ¹  is to take two birds, a piece of cedar wood, a scrap of crimson fabric, and some twigs of hyssop ²  to decontaminate ³  the house,

Call to mind now: ¹  Who, ²  being innocent, ever perished? ³  And where were upright people ⁴  ever destroyed? ⁵ 

“But turn, all of you, ¹  and come ²  now! ³  I will not find a wise man among you.

The previous abundance of the land will not be remembered ¹  because of the famine that follows, for the famine will be very severe. ² 

then the priest will command that two live clean birds, a piece of cedar wood, a scrap of crimson fabric, ¹  and some twigs of hyssop ²  be taken up ³  for the one being cleansed. ⁴ 

The captain of the royal guard took the golden and silver censers ¹  and basins.

Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money ¹  and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, ‘Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.’”

Then ¹  he is to take the live bird along with the piece of cedar wood, the scrap of crimson fabric, and the twigs of hyssop, and he is to dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird slaughtered over the fresh water,

So he is to decontaminate the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the live bird, the piece of cedar wood, the twigs of hyssop, and the scrap of crimson fabric,

There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land ¹  for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. ² 

You will desecrate your silver-plated idols ¹  and your gold-plated images. ²  You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag, saying to them, “Get out!”

The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, ¹  basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels. ² 

(The ripe fruit ¹  you greatly desired ²  has gone from you, and all your luxury ³  and splendor ⁴  have gone from you – they will never ever be found again!) ⁵ 

He must then take the piece of cedar wood, the twigs of hyssop, the scrap of crimson fabric, and the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and in the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ¹  you in your villages.

He approached the men of Succoth and said, “Look what I have! ¹  Zebah and Zalmunna! You insulted me, saying, ‘You have not yet overpowered Zebah and Zalmunna. So why should we give bread to your exhausted men?’” ² 

“Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ¹ 

This is what the Lord says: “Just as a shepherd salvages from the lion’s mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear, so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salvaged. ¹  They will be left with just a corner of a bed, ²  and a part ³  of a couch.”

All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces; all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire. ¹  I will make a waste heap ²  of all her images. Since ³  she gathered the metal ⁴  as a prostitute collects her wages, the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.” ⁵