He said to the people of Judah: ¹  “Let’s build these cities and fortify them with walls, towers, and barred gates. ²  The land remains ours because we have followed ³  the Lord our God and he has made us secure on all sides.” ⁴  So they built the cities ⁵  and prospered.

The Lover to His Beloved: O my dove, ¹  in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places of the mountain crags, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.

Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹  ‘With my many chariots I climbed up the high mountains, the slopes of Lebanon. I cut down its tall cedars and its best evergreens. I invaded its most remote regions, ²  its thickest woods.

Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. ¹  Her towers ²  will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the Lord, am wreaking revenge, ³  take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done!

They will attack ¹  you with weapons, ²  chariots, wagons, and with a huge army; ³  they will array themselves against you on every side with large shields, small shields, and helmets. I will assign them the task of judgment; ⁴  they will punish you according to their laws.

I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall limp. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I place my sword in the hand of the king of Babylon and he extends it against the land of Egypt.

“As for you, son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Tell every kind of bird and every wild beast: ‘Assemble and come! Gather from all around to my slaughter ¹  which I am going to make for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel! You will eat flesh and drink blood.

The side chambers surrounding the temple were wider at each successive story; ¹  for the structure ²  surrounding the temple went up story by story all around the temple. For this reason the width of the temple increased as it went up, and one went up from the lowest story to the highest by the way of the middle story.

“These are the names of the tribes: From the northern end beside the road of Hethlon to Lebo-hamath, as far as Hazar-enan (which is on the border of Damascus, toward the north beside Hamath), extending from the east side to the west, Dan will have one portion.

When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses, ¹  pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they will say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” He will respond, “Be quiet! Don’t invoke the Lord’s name!” ² 

The sailors were so afraid that each cried out ¹  to his own god ²  and they flung ³  the ship’s cargo ⁴  overboard ⁵  to make the ship lighter. ⁶  Jonah, meanwhile, ⁷  had gone down ⁸  into the hold ⁹  below deck, had lain down, and was sound asleep.

Before that time there was no compensation for man or animal, nor was there any relief from adversity for those who came and went, because I had pitted everybody – each one – against everyone else.

But as the man ¹  went out he began to announce it publicly and spread the story widely, so that Jesus ²  was no longer able to enter any town openly but stayed outside in remote places. Still ³  they kept coming ⁴  to him from everywhere.

For I am afraid that somehow when I come I will not find you what I wish, and you will find me ¹  not what you wish. I am afraid that ²  somehow there may be quarreling, jealousy, intense anger, selfish ambition, ³  slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.

But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said ¹  to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become ²  our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? ³