Naaman, Ahijah, and Gera, who moved them. Gera ¹  was the father of Uzzah and Ahihud.

King Ahasuerus then imposed forced labor on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

The wealth that he consumed ¹  he vomits up, God will make him throw it out ²  of his stomach.

The fatherless child is snatched ¹  from the breast, ²  the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. ³ 

The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

so that they had to live ¹  in the dry stream beds, ²  in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.

He causes everyone to stop working, ¹  so that all people ²  may know ³  his work.

I am fading away like a shadow at the end of the day; ¹  I am shaken off like a locust.

It was good for me to suffer, so that I might learn your statutes.

Those who make cloth ¹  will be demoralized; ²  all the hired workers will be depressed. ³ 

There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death.

Yet ¹  not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, although he was a Greek.

But you know it was because of a physical illness that I first proclaimed the gospel to you,

א (Alef) ^{1  2} Alas! ³  The city once full of people ⁴  now sits all alone! ⁵  The prominent ⁶  lady among the nations has become a widow! ⁷  The princess ⁸  who once ruled the provinces ⁹  has become a forced laborer!

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area, saw her, he grabbed her, forced himself on her, ¹  and sexually assaulted her. ² 

The slave masters were pressuring ¹  them, saying, “Complete ²  your work for each day, just like when there was straw!”

You may exact payment from a foreigner, but whatever your fellow Israelite ¹  owes you, you must remit.

The king of Egypt prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem and imposed on the land a special tax ¹  of one hundred talents ²  of silver and a talent of gold.

Powerful kings have been over Jerusalem who ruled throughout the entire Trans-Euphrates ¹  and who were the beneficiaries of ²  tribute, custom, and toll.

“Does not humanity have hard service ¹  on earth? Are not their days also like the days of a hired man? ²