You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bandaged the injured, brought back the strays, or sought the lost, but with force and harshness ¹  you have ruled over them.

All your allies ¹  will force ²  you from your homeland! ³  Your treaty partners ⁴  will deceive you and overpower you. Your trusted friends ⁵  will set an ambush ⁶  for ⁷  you that will take you by surprise! ⁸ 

“You who force your neighbor to drink wine ¹  are as good as dead ²  – you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ³  so you can look at their genitals. ⁴ 

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.”

Then, as soon as the copy of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read in the presence of Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues, they proceeded promptly to the Jews in Jerusalem ¹  and stopped them with threat of armed force. ² 

Then I said, “Lord, ¹  have you completely rejected the nation of Judah? Do you despise ²  the city of Zion? Why have you struck us with such force that we are beyond recovery? ³  We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it. We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. ⁴