Micah said to him, “Stay with me. Become my adviser ¹  and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, plus clothes and food.” ² 

Absalom would then say, “If only they would make me ¹  a judge in the land! Then everyone who had a judicial complaint ²  could come to me and I would make sure he receives a just settlement.”

festive dresses, robes, shawls, purses,

For there will be a time when people ¹  will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, ²  they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. ³ 

He lives in Salem; ¹  he dwells in Zion. ² 

You will lie down with ¹  no one to make you afraid, and many will seek your favor. ² 

Is it your opinion ¹  that God ²  should recompense it, because you reject this? ³  But you must choose, and not I, so tell us what you know.

No one is concerned about justice; ¹  no one sets forth his case truthfully. They depend on false words ²  and tell lies; they conceive of oppression ³  and give birth to sin.

and they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” ¹ 

They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’ ¹ 

Now Absalom used to get up early and stand beside the road that led to the city gate. Whenever anyone came by who had a complaint to bring to the king for arbitration, Absalom would call out to him, “What city are you from?” The person would answer, “I, your servant, ¹  am from one of the tribes of Israel.”

I ¹  will greatly rejoice ²  in the Lord; I will be overjoyed because of my God. ³  For he clothes me in garments of deliverance; he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication. ⁴  I look like a bridegroom when he wears a turban as a priest would; I look like a bride when she puts on her jewelry. ⁵ 

He gave sets of clothes to each one of them, ¹  but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothes. ² 

These ¹  are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing. ² 

¹ Now the Reubenites and the Gadites possessed a very large number of cattle. When they saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were ideal for cattle, ² 

the land that the Lord subdued ¹  before the community of Israel, is ideal for cattle, and your servants have cattle.”

Indeed, he may live among you in any place he chooses, in whichever of your villages ¹  he prefers; you must not oppress him.

You who tear yourself ¹  to pieces in your anger, will the earth be abandoned ²  for your sake? Or will a rock be moved from its place? ³ 

They will perish, but you will endure. ¹  They will wear out like a garment; like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear. ² 

He made cursing a way of life, ¹  so curses poured into his stomach like water and seeped into his bones like oil. ²