The Lord’s spirit empowered ¹  Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh and went ²  to Mizpah in Gilead. From there he approached the Ammonites. ³ 

The village women said to Naomi, “May the Lord be praised because he has not left you without a guardian ¹  today! May he ²  become famous in Israel! ³ 

It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people ¹  of Israel longed for ²  the Lord.

There was fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. So whenever Saul saw anyone who was a warrior or a brave individual, he would conscript him.

So Saul took three thousand select men from all Israel and went to find ¹  David and his men in the region of ²  the rocks of the mountain goats. ³ 

But David struck them down from twilight until the following evening. None of them escaped, with the exception of four hundred young men who got away on camels. ¹ 

All the land was weeping loudly ¹  as all these people were leaving. ²  As the king was crossing over the Kidron Valley, all the people were leaving ³  on the road that leads to the desert.

They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel –

So the Lord sent a plague through Israel from the morning until the completion of the appointed time. Seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beer Sheba.

When all Israel heard about the judicial decision which the king had rendered, they respected ¹  the king, for they realized ²  that he possessed supernatural wisdom ³  to make judicial decisions.

His royal court was so large because ¹  he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River from Tiphsah ²  to Gaza; he was at peace with all his neighbors. ³ 

The inside of the temple was all cedar and was adorned with carvings of round ornaments and of flowers in bloom. Everything was cedar; no stones were visible. ¹ 

He was Israel’s enemy throughout Solomon’s reign and, like Hadad, caused trouble. He loathed ¹  Israel and ruled over Syria.

There were also male cultic prostitutes ¹  in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations ²  that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.

They divided up the land between them; Ahab went ¹  one way and Obadiah went the other.

Throughout the afternoon they were in an ecstatic frenzy, ¹  but there was no sound, no answer, and no response. ² 

While the battle raged throughout the day, the king stood propped up in his chariot opposite the Syrians. He died in the evening; the blood from the wound ran down into the bottom of the chariot.

Let’s move the ark of our God back here, ¹  for we did not seek his will ²  throughout Saul’s reign.” ³ 

He placed garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David’s subjects. The Lord protected ¹  David wherever he campaigned. ² 

His son Shemaiah also had sons, who were leaders of their families, for they were highly respected.