There ¹  the prisoners ²  relax ³  together; ⁴  they do not hear the voice of the oppressor. ⁵ 

It scorns the tumult in the town; it does not hear the shouts of a driver. ¹ 

That same day Pharaoh commanded ¹  the slave masters and foremen ²  who were ³  over the people: ⁴ 

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 people will treat each other harshly; men will oppose each other; neighbors will fight. ¹  Youths will proudly defy the elderly and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. ² 

Oppressors treat my ¹  people cruelly; creditors rule over them. ²  My people’s leaders mislead them; they give you confusing directions. ³ 

you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words: ¹  “Look how the oppressor has met his end! Hostility ²  has ceased!

From him will come the cornerstone, ¹  the wall peg, ²  the battle bow, and every ruler. ³ 

The Lord said, “I have surely seen ¹  the affliction of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. ² 

So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, ¹  “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving ²  you straw.

The men of Israel realized they had a problem because their army was hard pressed. So the army hid in caves, thickets, cliffs, strongholds, ¹  and cisterns.

For their oppressive yoke and the club that strikes their shoulders, the cudgel the oppressor uses on them, ¹  you have shattered, as in the day of Midian’s defeat. ² 

Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. ¹  They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.

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 

They lament, ¹  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast? Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’ Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ²  you oppress your workers. ³ 

There will arise after him ¹  one ²  who will send out an exactor ³  of tribute to enhance the splendor of the kingdom, but after a few days he will be destroyed, ⁴  though not in anger or battle.

Then I will surround my temple ¹  to protect it like a guard ²  from anyone crossing back and forth; so no one will cross over against them anymore as an oppressor, for now I myself have seen it.

The Israelite foremen whom Pharaoh’s slave masters had set over them were beaten and were asked, ¹  “Why did you not complete your requirement for brickmaking as in the past – both yesterday and today?” ² 

This is the nature of the cancellation: Every creditor must remit what he has loaned to another person; ¹  he must not force payment from his fellow Israelite, ²  for it is to be recognized as “the Lord’s cancellation of debts.”