Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ¹  If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.” ² 

“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments – sword, famine, wild animals, and plague – to Jerusalem ¹  to kill both people and animals!

Therefore the Lord says this: “Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! ¹  It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. ²  You will no longer ³  walk proudly, for it will be a time of catastrophe.

“Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘The Lord who rules over all says, “Turn now from your evil wickedness,”’ but they would by no means obey me,” says the Lord.

For when you offer blind animals as a sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer the lame and sick, ¹  is that not wrong as well? Indeed, try offering them ²  to your governor! Will he be pleased with you ³  or show you favor?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

but ¹  you must not eat ²  from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when ³  you eat from it you will surely die.” ⁴ 

for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open ¹  and you will be like divine beings who know ²  good and evil.” ³ 

Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “This is the Lord’s doing. ¹  Our wishes are of no concern. ² 

so that ¹  you will not do us any harm, just as we have not harmed ²  you, but have always treated you well ³  before sending you away ⁴  in peace. Now you are blessed by the Lord.” ⁵ 

But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, ¹  “Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.” ³ 

Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild ¹  animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!” ² 

So he asked Pharaoh’s officials, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?” ¹ 

Then seven bad-looking, thin cows were coming up after them from the Nile, ¹  and they stood beside the other cows at the edge of the river. ² 

The bad-looking, thin cows ate the seven fine-looking, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

When they had eaten them, ¹  no one would have known ²  that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent ¹  seven years of famine.

If you take ¹  this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair ²  in tragedy ³  to the grave.’ ⁴ 

For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see ¹  my father’s pain.” ² 

As for you, you meant to harm me, ¹  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ² 

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.”