I will break Assyria ¹  in my land, I will trample them ²  underfoot on my hills. Their yoke will be removed from my people, the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ³ 

You must no longer say that the Lord’s message is burdensome. ¹  For what is ‘burdensome’ ²  really pertains to what a person himself says. ³  You are misrepresenting ⁴  the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all. ⁵ 

and we did not eat anyone’s food without paying. ¹  Instead, in toil and drudgery we worked ²  night and day in order not to burden any of you.

But to the rest of you in Thyatira, all who do not hold to this teaching ¹  (who have not learned the so-called “deep secrets ²  of Satan”), to you I say: I do not put any additional burden on you.

I am not able to bear this entire people alone, ¹  because it ²  is too heavy for me!

¹ This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz: ² 

In the year King Ahaz died, ¹  this message was revealed: ² 

The oracle against Nineveh; ¹  the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite: ² 

What follows is divine revelation. ¹  The word of the Lord came to Israel through Malachi: ² 

Bel ¹  kneels down, Nebo ²  bends low. Their images weigh down animals and beasts. ³  Your heavy images are burdensome to tired animals. ⁴ 

When ¹  I was with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia fully supplied my needs. ²  I ³  kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.

saying, ‘These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.’

For their oppressive yoke and the club that strikes their shoulders, the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, ¹  you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat. ² 

Even though they have hired lovers among the nations, ¹  I will soon gather them together for judgment. ²  Then ³  they will begin to waste away under the oppression of a mighty king. ⁴ 

I also said to you at that time, “I am no longer able to sustain you by myself.

Here is a message about Damascus: “Look, Damascus is no longer a city, it is a heap of ruins!

Here is a message about Arabia: In the thicket of Arabia you spend the night, you Dedanite caravans.

Here is a message about the Valley of Vision: ¹  What is the reason ²  that all of you go up to the rooftops?

Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it ¹  all by yourself.

I am presently eighty years old. Am I able to discern good and bad? Can I ¹  taste what I eat and drink? Am I still able to hear the voices of male and female singers? Why should I ²  continue to be a burden to my lord the king?