20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but ⁱGod meant it for good, to bring it about that many people¹ should be kept alive, as they are today.

11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them ⁱto afflict them with heavy ^jburdens. They built for Pharaoh ^kstore cities, Pithom and ^lRaamses.

12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.

15 who ^kled you through the great and terrifying wilderness, ^lwith its fiery serpents and scorpions ^mand thirsty ground where there was no water, ⁿwho brought you water out of the flinty rock,

16 who fed you in the wilderness with ^omanna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, ^pto do you good in the end.

5 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, ^pwhom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

6 ^qI will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^rI will build them up, and not tear them down; ^sI will plant them, and not pluck them up.

37 I will make you ^tpass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.