I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, ¹  and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. ² 

Then the elders of the city nearest to the corpse ¹  must take from the herd a heifer that has not been worked – that has never pulled with the yoke –

instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ¹  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ²  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.

So now go and make a new cart. Get two cows that have calves and that have never had a yoke placed on them. Harness the cows to the cart and take their calves from them back to their stalls.

Things will go better for the nation that submits to the yoke of servitude to ¹  the king of Babylon and is subject to him. I will leave that nation ²  in its native land. Its people can continue to farm it and live in it. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” ³ 

I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, ¹  “Submit ²  to the yoke of servitude to ³  the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live.

When the time for them to be rescued comes,” ¹  says the Lord who rules over all, ²  “I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. ³  I will deliver you from captivity. ⁴  Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.

You will live by your sword but you will serve your brother. When you grow restless, you will tear off his yoke from your neck.” ¹ 

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 

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 

I led them with leather ¹  cords, with leather ²  ropes; I lifted the yoke ³  from their neck, ⁴  and gently fed them. ⁵ 

Those who are under the yoke as slaves ¹  must regard their own masters as deserving of full respect. This will prevent ²  the name of God and Christian teaching ³  from being discredited. ⁴ 

and followed ¹  the advice of the younger ones. He said, “My father imposed heavy demands on you; I will make them even heavier. ²  My father punished you with ordinary whips; I will punish you with whips that really sting your flesh.” ³ 

He asked them, “How do you advise me ¹  to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?” ² 

He asked them, “How do you advise me to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?” ¹ 

and followed the advice of the younger ones. He said, “My father imposed heavy demands on you; ¹  I will make them even heavier. ²  My father punished you with ordinary whips; I will punish you with whips that really sting your flesh.” ³ 

So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

I was angry at my people; I defiled my special possession and handed them over to you. You showed them no mercy; ¹  you even placed a very heavy burden on old people. ² 

Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond; you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’ You must ¹  remove the burdensome yoke from among you and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.

I will go to the leaders ¹  and speak with them. Surely they know what the Lord demands. ²  Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ³  Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority and refuse to submit to him. ⁴