When King Ahaziah of Judah saw what happened, he took off ¹  up the road to Beth Haggan. Jehu chased him and ordered, “Shoot him too.” They shot him while he was driving his chariot up the ascent of Gur near Ibleam. ²  He fled to Megiddo ³  and died there.

Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment, you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, ¹  people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. If you do not, ²  my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you that no one will be able to extinguish. That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

“You should fear me!” says the Lord. “You should tremble in awe before me! ¹  I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea, a permanent barrier that it can never cross. Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail. They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary.” ² 

Do any of the worthless idols ¹  of the nations cause rain to fall? Do the skies themselves send showers? Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? ²  So we put our hopes in you ³  because you alone do all this.”

I saw the sovereign One ¹  standing by the altar ²  and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, ³  so the thresholds shake! Knock them down on the heads of all the people, ⁴  and I will kill the survivors ⁵  with the sword. No one will be able to run away; ⁶  no one will be able to escape. ⁷ 

For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. ¹ 

You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask;

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted. ¹ 

that I will take nothing ¹  belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, ‘It is I ²  who made Abram rich.’

Is anything impossible ¹  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ² 

Run there quickly, ¹  for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) ² 

Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children.

“We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water ¹  the sheep.”

Jacob became furious ¹  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ² 

When the man ¹  saw that he could not defeat Jacob, ²  he struck ³  the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

When Joseph’s ¹  brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, ²  they hated Joseph ³  and were not able to speak to him kindly. ⁴ 

The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads of grain. So I told all this ¹  to the diviner-priests, but no one could tell me its meaning.” ² 

He turned away from them and wept. When he turned around and spoke to them again, ¹  he had Simeon taken ²  from them and tied up ³  before their eyes.

They set a place for him, a separate place for his brothers, ¹  and another for the Egyptians who were eating with him. (The Egyptians are not able to eat with Hebrews, for the Egyptians think it is disgusting ²  to do so.) ³