surely you would not want to wait until they were old enough to marry! ¹  Surely you would not remain unmarried all that time! ²  No, ³  my daughters, you must not return with me. ⁴  For my intense suffering ⁵  is too much for you to bear. ⁶  For the Lord is afflicting me!” ⁷ 

Now Elisha had a terminal illness. ¹  King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. ²  He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot ³  and horsemen of Israel!” ⁴ 

“The time will come when the land suffers from a famine, a plague, blight, and disease, or a locust ¹  invasion, or when their enemy lays siege to the cities of the land, ²  or when some other type of plague or epidemic occurs.

When all your people Israel pray and ask for help, ¹  as they acknowledge their intense pain ²  and spread out their hands toward this temple,

You have taken notice, ¹  for ²  you always see ³  one who inflicts pain and suffering. ⁴  The unfortunate victim entrusts his cause to you; ⁵  you deliver ⁶  the fatherless. ⁷ 

Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; ¹  my neighbors are appalled by my suffering ²  – those who know me are horrified by my condition; ³  those who see me in the street run away from me.

A song, a psalm written by the Korahites; for the music director; according to the machalath-leannoth style; ²  a well-written song ³  by Heman the Ezrachite. O Lord God who delivers me! ⁴  By day I cry out and at night I pray before you. ⁵ 

We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹  We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; people to populate the world are not born. ² 

The sovereign master ¹  will give you distress to eat and suffering to drink; ²  but your teachers will no longer be hidden; your eyes will see them. ³ 

those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ¹  They will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, ²  happiness and joy will overwhelm ³  them; grief and suffering will disappear. ⁴ 

Shout for joy, O sky! ¹  Rejoice, O earth! Let the mountains give a joyful shout! For the Lord consoles his people and shows compassion to the ²  oppressed.

Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return; they will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, ¹  happiness and joy will overwhelm ²  them; grief and suffering will disappear. ³ 

He was led away after an unjust trial ¹  – but who even cared? ²  Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; ³  because of the rebellion of his own ⁴  people he was wounded.

Having suffered, he will reflect on his work, he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done. ¹  “My servant ²  will acquit many, ³  for he carried their sins. ⁴ 

For I, the Lord, love justice and hate robbery and sin. I will repay them because of my faithfulness; ¹  I will make a permanent covenant with them.

Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. ¹  The messenger sent from his very presence ²  delivered them. In his love and mercy he protected ³  them; he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times. ⁴ 

Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish? Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound? Will you let me down when I need you like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ¹ 

So then I, the Lord who rules over all, ¹  have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: ²  ‘I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. ³  For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason ⁴  that ungodliness ⁵  has spread throughout the land.’”

Now he has brought it about. The Lord has done just as he threatened to do. This disaster has happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. ¹ 

ג (Gimel) Judah ¹  has departed into exile under ²  affliction and harsh oppression. ³  She ⁴  lives among the nations; she has found no resting place. All who pursued her overtook her in ⁵  narrow straits. ⁶