Yet it was I who led ¹  Ephraim, I took them by the arm; but they did not acknowledge that I had healed them. ² 

The ¹  disciples said to him, “If this is the case of a husband with a wife, it is better not to marry!”

but ¹  they could not find a way to do it, ²  for all the people hung on his words. ³ 

he stood his ground ¹  and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it ²  seemed stuck to his sword. The Lord gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.

Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink. ¹ 

Let us go up at once ¹  to Bethel. Then I will make ²  an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress ³  and has been with me wherever I went.” ⁴ 

He jammed ¹  the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving, ²  and the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee ³  from Israel, for the Lord fights ⁴  for them against Egypt!”

My countrymen ¹  who accompanied ²  me frightened the people, ³  but I remained loyal to the Lord my God. ⁴ 

So all the men of Israel deserted ¹  David and followed Sheba son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stuck by their king all the way from the Jordan River ²  to Jerusalem. ³ 

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord; he did not repudiate ²  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin.

From Benjamin, Saul’s tribe, ¹  there were 3,000, most of whom, up to that time, had been loyal to Saul. ² 

The poles were so long their ends extending out from the ark were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point. ¹  They have remained there to this very day.

They supported ¹  the kingdom of Judah and were loyal to ²  Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years; they followed the edicts of ³  David and Solomon for three years.

The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed in his ancestor ¹  David’s footsteps at the beginning of his reign. ²  He did not seek the Baals,

He has blocked ¹  my way so I cannot pass, and has set darkness ²  over my paths.

The wicked man is so arrogant he always thinks, “God won’t hold me accountable; he doesn’t care.” ¹ 

The Lord says, “The women ¹  of Zion are proud. They walk with their heads high ²  and flirt with their eyes. They skip along ³  and the jewelry on their ankles jingles. ⁴ 

At that time the city of Jerusalem ¹  will be called the Lord’s throne. All nations will gather there in Jerusalem to honor the Lord’s name. ²  They will no longer follow the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. ³ 

How can you say, “We are wise! We have the law of the Lord”? The truth is, ¹  those who teach it ²  have used their writings to make it say what it does not really mean. ³ 

He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.’ ¹  The Lord says, ‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.’ ²