The Israelite foremen saw ¹  that they ²  were in trouble when they were told, ³  “You must not reduce the daily quota of your bricks.”

He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing; he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant.

But you must require ¹  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ²  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ³  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’

Because of the anxiety that makes me groan, my bones protrude from my skin. ¹ 

You ¹  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ²  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

Joseph ¹  made all the people slaves ²  from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.

Israel was so severely weakened by Midian that the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.

“If this is not so, who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?” ¹ 

You have broken down all his ¹  walls; you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.

Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure. ¹  Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing. ² 

and they ¹  made the Israelites serve rigorously. ² 

The city is left in ruins; ¹  the gate is reduced to rubble. ² 

So see here, I have stretched out my hand against you and cut off your rations. I have delivered you into the power of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed by your obscene conduct.

but if ¹  he consecrates his field after the jubilee, the priest will calculate the price ²  for him according to the years that are left until the next jubilee year, and it will be deducted from the conversion value.

In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel’s territory. ¹  Hazael attacked their eastern border. ² 

for on account ¹  of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread, but the wife of another man ²  preys on your precious life. ³ 

like heat ¹  in a dry land, you humble the boasting foreigners. ²  Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, ³  so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. ⁴ 

Then the priest must put on his linen robe and must put linen leggings ¹  over his bare flesh, and he must take up the fatty ashes of the burnt offering that the fire consumed on the altar, ²  and he must place them ³  beside the altar.

So then, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.

If he takes another wife, ¹  he must not diminish the first one’s food, ²  her clothing, or her marital rights. ³