You ¹  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ²  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

The slave masters were pressuring ¹  them, saying, “Complete ²  your work for each day, just like when there was straw!”

Like tying a stone in a sling, ¹  so is giving honor to a fool.

So my heart constantly sighs for Moab, like the strumming of a harp, ¹  my inner being sighs ²  for Kir Hareseth. ³ 

You counted the houses in Jerusalem, ¹  and demolished houses so you could have material to reinforce the wall. ² 

For the stones in the walls will cry out, and the wooden rafters will answer back. ¹ 

¹ Why do you insist on being battered? Why do you continue to rebel? ²  Your head has a massive wound, ³  your whole body is weak. ⁴ 

I have listened to them very carefully, ¹  but they do not speak honestly. None of them regrets the evil he has done. None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ²  All of them persist in their own wayward course ³  like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp ¹  against it! Post soldiers outside it ²  and station battering rams around it.