Please recall the word you commanded your servant Moses: ‘If you act unfaithfully, I will scatter you among the nations. ¹ 

Even I and my relatives ¹  and my associates ²  are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! ³ 

This very day return to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and their houses, along with the interest ¹  that you are exacting from them on the money, the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil.”

when they prayed: ¹  “Have mercy on me, ²  Lord! See how I am oppressed by those who hate me, ³  O one who can snatch me away ⁴  from the gates of death!

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable in your sight, ¹  O Lord, my sheltering rock ²  and my redeemer. ³ 

Those who seek my life try to entrap me; ¹  those who want to harm me speak destructive words; all day long they say deceitful things.

I am depressed, ¹  so I will pray to you while I am trapped here in the region of the upper Jordan, ²  from Hermon, ³  from Mount Mizar. ⁴ 

By day the Lord decrees his loyal love, ¹  and by night he gives me a song, ²  a prayer ³  to the living God.

I will pray ¹  to God, my high ridge: ²  “Why do you ignore ³  me? Why must I walk around mourning ⁴  because my enemies oppress me?”

In my time of trouble I sought ¹  the Lord. I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ²  I ³  refused to be comforted.

Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, ¹  on the kingdoms that do not pray to you! ² 

I say, “O my God, please do not take me away in the middle of my life! ¹  You endure through all generations. ² 

When King Hezekiah heard this, ¹  he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the Lord’s temple.

You must be truthful, honest and upright when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ ¹  If you do, ²  the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are and will make him the object of their boasting.” ³ 

Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. ¹  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” 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.

I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to reprove ¹  them, for they are a rebellious house.

oppresses the poor and the needy, ¹  commits robbery, does not give back what was given in pledge, prays to ²  idols, performs abominable acts,

He does not eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains, does not pray to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor’s wife,

They do not pray to me, ¹  but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves ²  for grain and new wine, but turn away from me.