and made their lives miserable by forcing them into cruel slavery. They made them work on their building projects and in their fields, and they had no pity on them.

(SEE 1:13)

You people have become more numerous than the Egyptians. And now you want to stop working!"

"Stop giving the people straw for making bricks. Make them go and find it for themselves.

Make them work harder and keep them busy, so that they won't have time to listen to a pack of lies."

When that time comes, you will complain bitterly because of your king, whom you yourselves chose, but the LORD will not listen to your complaints."

I was angry with my people; I treated them as no longer mine: I put them in your power, and you showed them no mercy; even the aged you treated harshly.

"The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free.

to go and tell Hananiah: "The LORD has said that you may be able to break a wooden yoke, but he will replace it with an iron yoke.

The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that he will put an iron yoke on all these nations and that they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. The LORD has said that he will make even the wild animals serve Nebuchadnezzar."

Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest.

Listen! I have given you authority, so that you can walk on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the Enemy, and nothing will hurt you.

Locusts came down out of the smoke upon the earth, and they were given the same kind of power that scorpions have.

The locusts were not allowed to kill these people, but only to torture them for five months. The pain caused by the torture is like the pain caused by a scorpion's sting.

They have tails and stings like those of a scorpion, and it is with their tails that they have the power to hurt people for five months.