To impart ¹  shrewdness ²  to the morally naive, ³  and ⁴  a discerning ⁵  plan ⁶  to the young person. ⁷ 

The young man said to him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed ¹  all these laws. ²  What do I still lack?”

Joshua son of Nun, the servant ¹  of Moses, one of his choice young men, ²  said, ³  “My lord Moses, stop them!” ⁴ 

When the Philistine looked carefully at David, he despised him, for he was only a ruddy and handsome boy.

“Indeed, the Lord will call you back like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ¹  like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, conduct, love, faithfulness, ¹  and purity.

Rejoice, young man, while you are young, ¹  and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the impulses ²  of your heart and the desires ³  of your eyes, but know that God will judge your motives and actions. ⁴ 

He ordered Jether his firstborn son, “Come on! ¹  Kill them!” But Jether was too afraid to draw his sword, ²  because he was still young.

Persist ¹  in trusting ²  your amulets and your many incantations, which you have faithfully recited ³  since your youth! Maybe you will be successful ⁴  – maybe you will scare away disaster. ⁵ 

They will disappoint you, ¹  those you have so faithfully dealt with since your youth. ²  Each strays off in his own direction, ³  leaving no one to rescue you.”

“Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ¹  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ²  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ³  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal, has taken away ¹  all that our ancestors ²  worked for. It has taken away our flocks and our herds, and even our sons and daughters.

While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. ¹  But you said, “I refuse to listen to you.” That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward. ²  Indeed, you have never paid attention to me.

For after we turned away from you we repented. After we came to our senses ¹  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²  We are ashamed and humiliated because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ³ 

This will happen because the people of Israel and Judah have repeatedly done what displeases me ¹  from their earliest history until now ²  and because they ³  have repeatedly made me angry by the things they have done. ⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁵ 

Yet you ask, “Why?” The Lord is testifying against you on behalf of the wife you married when you were young, ¹  to whom you have become unfaithful even though she is your companion and wife by law. ² 

They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest. ¹  The men looked at each other in astonishment. ² 

Now look! This king walks before you. As for me, I am old and gray, though my sons are here with you. I have walked before you from the time of my youth till the present day.

I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women.

And I said, “Ah, sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat ¹  has never entered my mouth.”