You must set apart ¹  for the Lord your God every firstborn male born to your herds and flocks. You must not work the firstborn of your bulls or shear the firstborn of your flocks.

There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; ¹  he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Now I hear that they are shearing sheep for you. When your shepherds were with us, we neither insulted them nor harmed them the whole time they were in Carmel.

Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t even know where they came from!”

He was treated harshly and afflicted, ¹  but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth. ² 

Now the passage of scripture the man ¹  was reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did ²  not open his mouth.

The furnishings included linen and purple curtains hung by cords of the finest linen ¹  and purple wool on silver rings, alabaster columns, gold and silver couches ²  displayed on a floor made of valuable stones of alabaster, mother-of-pearl, and mineral stone.