Now look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If a man leans for support on it, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him.

Look, you must be trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed staff. If someone leans on it for support, it punctures his hand and wounds him. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt does to all who trust in him!

It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and will cause boils to break out and fester ¹  on both people and animals in all the land of Egypt.”

However, suppose a person hates someone else ¹  and stalks him, attacks him, kills him, ²  and then flees to one of these cities.

“See now that I, indeed I, am he!” says the Lord, ¹  “and there is no other god besides me. I kill and give life, I smash and I heal, and none can resist ²  my power.

I will become his father and he will become my son. When he sins, I will correct him with the rod of men and with wounds inflicted by human beings.

The watchmen found me as they made their rounds in the city. They beat me, they bruised me; they took away my cloak, those watchmen on the walls!

Then your light will shine like the sunrise; ¹  your restoration will quickly arrive; ²  your godly behavior ³  will go before you, and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard. ⁴ 

Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you – though you are a man and not a god – when you are in the power of those who wound you?

I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear them to pieces, then I will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them!

suffering harm as the wages for their harmful ways. ¹  By considering it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight, ²  they are stains and blemishes, indulging ³  in their deceitful pleasures when they feast together with you.

For the power ¹  of the horses resides ²  in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes, having heads that inflict injuries.

But these people are looted and plundered; all of them are trapped in pits ¹  and held captive ²  in prisons. They were carried away as loot with no one to rescue them; they were carried away as plunder, and no one says, “Bring that back!” ³ 

Men were assigned to take the prisoners and find clothes among the plunder for those who were naked. ¹  So they clothed them, supplied them with sandals, gave them food and drink, and provided them with oil to rub on their skin. ²  They put the ones who couldn’t walk on donkeys. ³  They brought them back to their brothers at Jericho, ⁴  the city of the date palm trees, and then returned to Samaria.