by me princes rule, as well as nobles and ¹  all righteous judges. ² 

They bind ¹  their kings in chains, and their nobles in iron shackles,

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.

who says to a king, ¹  ‘Worthless man’ ²  and to nobles, ‘Wicked men,’

the voices of the nobles fell silent, ¹  and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, ¹  and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna, ² 

The well which the princes ¹  dug, which the leaders of the people opened with their scepters and their staffs.” And from the wilderness they traveled to Mattanah;

The men of Tekoa worked on the section adjacent to them, but their town leaders ¹  would not assist ²  with the work of their master. ³ 

In those days the aristocrats of Judah repeatedly sent letters to Tobiah, and responses from Tobiah were repeatedly coming to them.

So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day?

¹ On a bare hill raise a signal flag, shout to them, wave your hand, so they might enter the gates of the princes!

Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom and all her officials will disappear. ¹ 

I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is demanding ¹  and extensive, and we are spread out on the wall, far removed from one another.

He issued a proclamation and said, ¹  “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No human or animal, cattle or sheep, is to taste anything; they must not eat and they must not drink water.

Then the survivors ¹  came down ²  to the mighty ones; ³  the Lord’s people came down to me ⁴  as ⁵  warriors.

Then King Belshazzar was very terrified, and he was visibly shaken. ¹  His nobles were completely dumbfounded.

The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing, for up to this point I had not told any of the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or the rest of the workers.

I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly.

in the third ¹  year of his reign he provided a banquet for all his officials and his servants. The army ²  of Persia and Media ³  was present, ⁴  as well as the nobles and the officials of the provinces.

The leading men of the cities send their servants for water. They go to the cisterns, ¹  but they do not find any water there. They return with their containers ²  empty. Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ³