1. Thus says the Lord: Where is the certificate of divorceby which I sent your mother away?Or to which of My creditorsdid I sell you?For your iniquities you were sold,and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2. Why, when I came, was there no man?When I called, was there no one to answer?Is My hand so short that it cannot redeem?Or have I no power to deliver?Indeed, at My rebuke I dry up the sea,I make the rivers a wilderness;Their fish stink because there is no water,and die for thirst.
3. I clothe the heavens with blackness,and I make sackcloth their covering.
4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned,that I may know how to sustain him who is weary with a word;He awakens me morning by morning;He awakens my ear to listen as the learned.
5. The Lord God has opened my ear,and I was not rebellious,nor did I turn back.
6. I gave my back to those who struck me,and my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard;I did not cover my facefrom shame and spitting.