Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain; I myself put a fine yoke ¹ on her neck. I will harness Ephraim. Let Judah plow! ²  Let Jacob break up ³  the unplowed ground for himself!

When Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor, ¹  the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel.

Yet they will become his subjects, so they can experience how serving me differs from serving the surrounding nations.” ¹ 

We are pursued – they are breathing down our necks; ¹  we are weary and have no rest. ² 

making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

I will take you to myself for a people, and I will be your God. ¹  Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from your enslavement to ²  the Egyptians.

So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you must execute those of his men ¹  who were joined to Baal-peor.”

In this initial skirmish Jonathan and his armor bearer struck down about twenty men in an area that measured half an acre.

But the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us, forcing us to do burdensome labor.

Then the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hate you and persecute you.

י (Yod) Let a person ¹  sit alone in silence, when the Lord ²  is disciplining him. ³ 

Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out ¹  from your enslavement to ²  the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, ³  and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

I ¹  have also heard ²  the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, ³  and I have remembered my covenant. ⁴ 

Jethro said, “Blessed ¹  be the Lord who has delivered you from the hand of Egypt, and from the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from the Egyptians’ control! ² 

you must say to them, ¹  “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt in a powerful way. ² 

They ruthlessly oppressed ¹  the Israelites that eighteenth year ²  – that is, all the Israelites living east of the Jordan in Amorite country in Gilead.

And now you are planning ¹  to enslave ²  the people ³  of Judah and Jerusalem. Yet are you not also guilty before the Lord your God?

Why do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?” ¹  The sovereign Lord who commands armies ²  has spoken.

When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, ¹  and from the hard labor which you were made to perform,

For this is what the sovereign Lord says: “In the beginning my people went to live temporarily in Egypt; Assyria oppressed them for no good reason.