They say, ¹  “Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! ²  Let’s free ourselves from ³  their ropes!”

He brought them out of the utter darkness, ¹  and tore off their shackles.

And now, ¹  I will break Assyria’s ²  yoke bar ³  from your neck; ⁴  I will tear apart the shackles ⁵  that are on you.” ⁶ 

Who let the wild donkey go free? Who released the bonds of the donkey,

Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant; I am your lowest slave. ¹  You saved me from death. ² 

Shake off the dirt! ¹  Get up, captive ²  Jerusalem! Take off the iron chains around your neck, O captive daughter Zion!

The Lord told me, ¹  “Make a yoke ²  out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and put it on your neck.

So now, do not mock, or your chains will become heavier! For I have heard a message about decreed destruction, from the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, against the entire land. ¹ 

When the time for them to be rescued comes,” ¹  says the Lord who rules over all, ²  “I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. ³  I will deliver you from captivity. ⁴  Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.

“Indeed, ¹  long ago you threw off my authority and refused to be subject to me. ²  You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ³  Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill and under every green tree, like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ⁴ 

I will go to the leaders ¹  and speak with them. Surely they know what the Lord demands. ²  Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ³  Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority and refuse to submit to him. ⁴