to show you true and reliable words, ¹  so that you may give accurate answers ²  to those who sent you?

But Pharaoh replied, ¹  “You are slackers! Slackers! ²  That is why you are saying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to the Lord.’

There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain ¹  grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.”

Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king ¹  on our fields and our vineyards.

Many say about me, “God will not deliver him.” ¹  (Selah) ² 

Many say, “Who can show us anything good?” Smile upon us, Lord! ¹ 

Listen to what they are saying to me. ¹  They are saying, “Where are the things the Lord threatens us with? Come on! Let’s see them happen!” ² 

“You must not disobey the Lord your God by saying, ‘We will not stay in this land.’

The man said, “They left this area, ¹  for I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ¹  ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even ²  being beaten, but the fault ³  is with your people.”

And now you are planning ¹  to enslave ²  the people ³  of Judah and Jerusalem. Yet are you not also guilty before the Lord your God?

They were telling me about his good deeds and then taking back to him the things I said. ¹  Tobiah, on the other hand, sent letters in order to scare ²  me.

All the relatives ¹  of a poor person hate him; ²  how much more do his friends avoid him – he pursues them ³  with words, but they do not respond. ⁴ 

They say to a wooden idol, ¹  ‘You are my father.’ They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ ²  Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ³  Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

They continually say ¹  to those who reject what the Lord has said, ²  ‘Things will go well for you!’ ³  They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’

You and your people ¹  are saying that this land will become desolate, uninhabited by either people or animals. You are saying that it will be handed over to the Babylonians. ²  But fields ³  will again be bought in this land. ⁴ 

“Take note, son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for distant days; he is prophesying about the far future.’

“‘What you plan ¹  will never happen. You say, “We will be ²  like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone.” ³ 

Then I said, “O sovereign Lord! They are saying of me, ‘Does he not simply speak in eloquent figures of speech?’”