Daily Bread

“‘Virgin Daughter^(E) Zion
    despises^(F) you and mocks^(G) you.
Daughter Jerusalem
    tosses her head^(H) as you flee.
²² Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed?^(I)
    Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes in pride?
    Against the Holy One^(J) of Israel!
²³ By your messengers
    you have ridiculed the Lord.
And you have said,^(K)
    “With my many chariots^(L)
I have ascended the heights of the mountains,
    the utmost heights of Lebanon.
I have cut down^(M) its tallest cedars,
    the choicest of its junipers.
I have reached its remotest parts,
    the finest of its forests.
²⁴ I have dug wells in foreign lands
    and drunk the water there.
With the soles of my feet
    I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

²⁵ “‘Have you not heard?^(N)
    Long ago I ordained it.
In days of old I planned^(O) it;
    now I have brought it to pass,
that you have turned fortified cities
    into piles of stone.^(P)
26 Their people, drained of power,^(Q)
    are dismayed^(R) and put to shame.
They are like plants in the field,
    like tender green shoots,^(S)
like grass sprouting on the roof,
    scorched^(T) before it grows up.

²⁷ “‘But I know^(U) where you are
    and when you come and go
    and how you rage against me.
²⁸ Because you rage against me
    and because your insolence has reached my ears,
I will put my hook^(V) in your nose
    and my bit^(W) in your mouth,
and I will make you return^(X)
    by the way you came.’

“This year you will eat what grows by itself,^(Z)
    and the second year what springs from that.
But in the third year sow and reap,
    plant vineyards^(AA) and eat their fruit.
³⁰ Once more a remnant^(AB) of the kingdom of Judah
    will take root^(AC) below and bear fruit above.
³¹ For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant,^(AD)
    and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.^(AE)

“‘He will not enter this city
    or shoot an arrow here.
He will not come before it with shield
    or build a siege ramp against it.
³³ By the way that he came he will return;^(AG)
    he will not enter this city,
declares the Lord.
³⁴ I will defend^(AH) this city and save it,
    for my sake and for the sake of David^(AI) my servant.’”