1. Thus says יהוה, “Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Look, you were sold for your crookednesses, and your mother was put away for your transgressions.
2. “When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was My hand too short to redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? See, by My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink for there is not water, and die of thirst.
3. “I clothe the heavens with darkness, and I make sackcloth their covering.”
4. The Master יהוה has given Me the tongue of taught ones, that I should know to help the weary with a word. He wakes Me morning by morning, he wakes My ear to hear as taught ones.
5. The Master יהוה has opened My ear, and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away.
6. I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard, I did not hide My face from humiliation and spitting.