he said, "A curse on Canaan! He will be a slave to his brothers.

"Foreigners who live in your land will gain more and more power, while you gradually lose yours.

When Sanballat, Tobiah, and an Arab named Geshem heard what we were planning to do, they laughed at us and said, "What do you think you're doing? Are you going to rebel against the emperor?"

Every governor who had been in office before me had been a burden to the people and had demanded forty silver coins a day for food and wine. Even their servants had oppressed the people. But I acted differently, because I honored God.

a slave who becomes a king, a fool who has all he wants to eat,

Their children can never find safety; no one stands up to defend them in court.

You know that I am not guilty, that no one can save me from you.

or else like a lion they will carry me off where no one can save me, and there they will tear me to pieces.

"Listen to this, you that ignore me, or I will destroy you, and there will be no one to save you.

I am God and always will be. No one can escape from my power; no one can change what I do."

I will strip her naked in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to save her from my power.

(The LORD said, "I will no longer pity anyone on earth. I myself will put all the people in the power of their rulers. These rulers will devastate the earth, and I will not save it from their power.")