The matter seemed appropriate to the king and the officials. So the king acted on the advice of Memucan.

Or a person is chastened by pain on his bed, and with the continual strife of his bones,

Surely it is an empty cry – God does not hear it; the Almighty does not take notice of it.

But if they refuse to listen, they pass over the river of death, and expire without knowledge.

Its underparts are the sharp points of potsherds, it leaves its mark in the mud like a threshing sledge.

A psalm of David. Lord, who may be a guest in your home? Who may live on your holy hill?

Singers walk in front; musicians follow playing their stringed instruments, in the midst of young women playing tambourines.

Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor! For we have had our fill of humiliation, and then some.

He performed awesome deeds and acts of judgment in your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants.

All of them respond to you, saying: ‘You too have become weak like us! You have become just like us!

So my heart constantly sighs for Moab, like the strumming of a harp, my inner being sighs for Kir Hareseth.

Look, all of them are nothing, their accomplishments are nonexistent; their metal images lack any real substance.

Egypt is like a beautiful young cow. But northern armies will attack her like swarms of stinging flies.

He has blocked every road I take with a wall of hewn stones; he has made every path impassable.

Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of insults.

So the warden removed the delicacies and the wine from their diet and gave them a diet of vegetables instead.

They again replied, “Let the king inform us of the dream; then we will disclose its interpretation.”

Surely they will be totally consumed like entangled thorn bushes, like the drink of drunkards, like very dry stubble.

But he denied it in front of them all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Pilate said to them, “Take a guard of soldiers. Go and make it as secure as you can.”