You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could, ¹ 

will you, with him, spread out ¹  the clouds, solid as a mirror of molten metal?

when the dust hardens ¹  into a mass, and the clumps of earth stick together?

“You aggressively attacked me ¹  and tried to knock me down, ²  but the Lord helped me.

For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”

in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, ¹  in troubles, ²  in sleepless nights, in hunger,

Fathers, ¹  do not provoke ²  your children, so they will not become disheartened.

When her labor was at its hardest, ¹  the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.” ² 

So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ¹  and he did not release the Israelites, as the Lord had predicted through Moses.

I will hand Egypt over to a harsh master; a powerful king will rule over them,” says the sovereign master, ¹  the Lord who commands armies.

For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech ¹  and difficult language, ²  but ³  to the house of Israel –

Jesus ¹  said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, ²  but from the beginning it was not this way.

Simon ¹  answered, ²  “Master, ³  we worked hard all night and caught nothing! But at your word ⁴  I will lower ⁵  the nets.”

But Jacob ¹  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ²  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ³  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ¹  ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself ²  by kicking against the goads.’ ³ 

¹ In those days, ²  when ³  Moses had grown up, he went out to his people ⁴  and observed ⁵  their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking ⁶  a Hebrew man, one of his own people. ⁷ 

But the magicians of Egypt did the same ¹  by their secret arts, and so ²  Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ³  and he refused to listen to Moses and Aaron ⁴  – just as the Lord had predicted.

The men of Israel realized they had a problem because their army was hard pressed. So the army hid in caves, thickets, cliffs, strongholds, ¹  and cisterns.

ג (Gimel) Judah ¹  has departed into exile under ²  affliction and harsh oppression. ³  She ⁴  lives among the nations; she has found no resting place. All who pursued her overtook her in ⁵  narrow straits. ⁶ 

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hard; ²  he refuses to release ³  the people.