People ¹  do not despise a thief when he steals to fulfill his need ²  when he is hungry.

The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, ¹  “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’”

But when he came to his senses ¹  he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food ²  enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger!

They go about naked, without clothing, and go hungry while they carry the sheaves. ¹ 

he has filled the hungry with good things, ¹  and has sent the rich away empty. ² 

Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food, but the hungry no longer lack. Even ¹  the barren woman gives birth to seven, ²  but the one with many children withers away. ³ 

“Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die! What use is the birthright to me?” ¹ 

In time of famine ¹  he will redeem you from death, and in time of war from the power of the sword. ² 

There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.”

ה (He) Those who once feasted on delicacies ¹  are now starving to death ²  in the streets. Those who grew up ³  wearing expensive clothes ⁴  are now dying ⁵  amid garbage. ⁶ 

“Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain ¹  for your hungry households and go.

So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed ¹  me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called ²  Edom.) ³ 

If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison ¹  while the rest of you go ²  and take grain back for your hungry families. ³ 

They will pass through the land ¹  destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, ²  and they will curse their king and their God ³  as they look upward.

ו (Vav) All of Daughter Zion’s ¹  splendor ²  has departed. ³  Her leaders became like deer; they found no pasture, so they were too exhausted to escape ⁴  from the hunter. ⁵ 

The one far away will die by pestilence, the one close by will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and has escaped these ¹  will die by famine. I will fully vent my rage against them.

Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man ¹  at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. ²  This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. ³ 

If I go out into the countryside, I see those who have been killed in battle. If I go into the city, I see those who are sick because of starvation. ¹  For both prophet and priest go about their own business in the land without having any real understanding.’” ² 

ק (Qof) Get up! Cry out in the night ¹  when the night watches start! ²  Pour out your heart ³  like water before the face of the Lord! ⁴  Lift up your hands ⁵  to him for your children’s lives; ⁶  they are fainting ⁷  at every street corner. ⁸