So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail, both the shoots and stalk ¹  in one day.

Egypt will not be able to do a thing, head or tail, shoots and stalk. ¹ 

But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus basket ¹  for him and sealed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and set it among the reeds along the edge of the Nile. ² 

Is this really the kind of fasting I want? ¹  Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, ²  bowing their heads like a reed and stretching out ³  on sackcloth and ashes? Is this really what you call a fast, a day that is pleasing to the Lord?

Can the papyrus plant grow tall ¹  where there is no marsh? Can reeds flourish ²  without water?

along with the plants by the mouth of the river. ¹  All the cultivated land near the river will turn to dust and be blown away. ² 

The canals ¹  will stink; ²  the streams of Egypt will trickle and then dry up; the bulrushes and reeds will decay,

that sends messengers by sea, who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus. Go, you swift messengers, to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, ¹  to a people that are feared far and wide, ²  to a nation strong and victorious, ³  whose land rivers divide. ⁴