Then ¹  I, the Lord, promise that ²  I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and any of the people who survive the war, starvation, and disease. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will slaughter them with the sword. He will not show them any mercy, compassion, or pity.’

Cut sharply on the right! Swing to ¹  the left, wherever your edge ²  is appointed to strike.

And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey ¹  into the desert so that we may sacrifice ²  to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword.” ³ 

Take a branch of hyssop, ¹  dip it in the blood that is in the basin, ²  and apply to the top of the doorframe and the two side posts some of the blood that is in the basin. Not one of you is to go out ³  the door of his house until morning.

So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare ¹  them. Put them to death – man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.’”

Then the king said to the messengers ¹  who were stationed beside him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, for they too have sided ²  with David! They knew he was fleeing, but they did not inform me.” But the king’s servants refused to harm ³  the priests of the Lord.

David said on that day, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must approach the ‘lame’ and the ‘blind’ who are David’s enemies ¹  by going through the water tunnel.” ²  For this reason it is said, “The blind and the lame cannot enter the palace.” ³ 

So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, ¹  “Come on! ²  Let’s escape! ³  Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring ⁴  disaster on us and kill the city’s residents with the sword.” ⁵ 

For the Lord ¹  had caused infertility to strike every woman ²  in the household of Abimelech because he took ³  Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Instead, you must kill him without fail! ¹  Your own hand must be the first to strike him, ²  and then the hands of the whole community.

The sword will make people childless outside, and terror will do so inside; they will destroy ¹  both the young man and the virgin, the infant and the gray-haired man.

“Come to my aid ¹  so we can attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.”

In this initial skirmish Jonathan and his armor bearer struck down about twenty men in an area that measured half an acre.

Do not strike them dead suddenly, because then my people might forget the lesson. ¹  Use your power to make them homeless vagabonds and then bring them down, O Lord who shields us! ² 

so that your feet may stomp ¹  in their blood, and your dogs may eat their portion of the enemies’ corpses.” ² 

Yes, ¹  he struck a rock and water flowed out, streams gushed forth. But can he also give us food? Will he provide meat for his people?”

A slanderer ¹  will not endure on ²  the earth; calamity will hunt down a violent man and strike him down. ³ 

till an arrow pierces his liver ¹  – like a bird hurrying into a trap, and he does not know that it will cost him his life. ² 

Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ¹  they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ²  they will not ³  look with pity on children.

It ¹  furiously struck down nations with unceasing blows. ²  It angrily ruled over nations, oppressing them without restraint. ³