In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword ¹  and went to the unsuspecting city ²  and slaughtered every male.

Twist and strain, ¹  Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the Lord will deliver ²  you from the power ³  of your enemies.

My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. ¹  They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests ²  because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger. ³ 

What will you say ¹  when the Lord ²  appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? ³  Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ⁴ 

A sword will come against Egypt and panic will overtake Ethiopia when the slain fall in Egypt and they carry away her wealth and dismantle her foundations.

For even if I made you sad ¹  by my letter, ²  I do not regret having written it ³  (even though I did regret it, ⁴  for ⁵  I see that my letter made you sad, ⁶  though only for a short time).

He said to me, ‘Stand over me and finish me off! ¹  I’m very dizzy, ²  even though I’m still alive.’ ³ 

How long must I worry, ¹  and suffer in broad daylight? ²  How long will my enemy gloat over me? ³ 

I will be happy and rejoice in your faithfulness, because you notice my pain and you are aware of how distressed I am. ¹ 

But he lifted up our illnesses, he carried our pain; ¹  even though we thought he was being punished, attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. ² 

Indeed, the residents of Maroth ¹  hope for something good to happen, ²  though the Lord has sent disaster against the city of Jerusalem. ³ 

When the mountains see you, they shake. The torrential downpour sweeps through. ¹  The great deep ²  shouts out; it lifts its hands high. ³ 

So also you have sorrow ¹  now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. ² 

For sadness as intended by God produces a repentance that leads to salvation, leaving no regret, but worldly sadness brings about death.

They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their sufferings ¹  and because of their sores, ²  but nevertheless ³  they still refused to repent ⁴  of their deeds.

Sarah’s demand displeased Abraham greatly because Ishmael was his son. ¹ 

The nations will hear ¹  and tremble; anguish ²  will seize ³  the inhabitants of Philistia.

I will humiliate David’s descendants because of this, ¹  but not forever.” ² 

After about two years his intestines came out because of the disease, so that he died a very painful death. ¹  His people did not make a bonfire to honor him, as they had done for his ancestors. ² 

For ¹  he ²  wounds, ³  but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.