Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long are you going to be paralyzed by indecision? ¹  If the Lord is the true God, ²  then follow him, but if Baal is, follow him!” But the people did not say a word.

Your presumptuous heart ¹  has deceived you – you who reside in the safety of the rocky cliffs, ²  whose home is high in the mountains. ³  You think to yourself, ⁴  ‘No one can ⁵  bring me down to the ground!’ ⁶ 

The sick man answered him, “Sir, ¹  I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, ²  someone else ³  goes down there ⁴  before me.”

So ¹  the Lord has this to say about Josiah’s son, King Jehoiakim of Judah: People will not mourn for him, saying, “This makes me sad, my brother! This makes me sad, my sister!” They will not mourn for him, saying, “Poor, poor lord! Poor, poor majesty!” ² 

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning ¹  as you are!

No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ¹  ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even ²  being beaten, but the fault ³  is with your people.”

So now, get back to work! ¹  You will not be given straw, but you must still produce ²  your quota ³  of bricks!”

No one ¹  could see ²  another person, and no one could rise from his place for three days. But the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

For as surely as the Lord, the deliverer of Israel, lives, even if it turns out to be my own son Jonathan, he will certainly die!” But no one from the army said anything. ¹ 

David said to Saul, “Who am I? Who are my relatives or the clan of my father ¹  in Israel that I should become the king’s son-in-law?”

The king responded, “Give the first woman the living child; don’t kill him. She is the mother.”

Solomon left all these items unweighed; there were so many of them they did not weigh the bronze. ¹ 

The stew was poured out ¹  for the men to eat. When they ate some of the stew, they cried out, “Death is in the pot, O prophet!” They could not eat it.

The Lord sent prophets among them to lead them back to him. ¹  They warned ²  the people, but they would not pay attention.

He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed; he is committed to a sinful lifestyle; ¹  he does not reject what is evil. ² 

However, a poor but wise man lived in the city, ¹  and he could have delivered ²  the city by his wisdom, but no one listened ³  to that poor man.

The people will treat each other harshly; men will oppose each other; neighbors will fight. ¹  Youths will proudly defy the elderly and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. ² 

For the fortified city ¹  is left alone; it is a deserted settlement and abandoned like the desert. Calves ²  graze there; they lie down there and eat its branches bare. ³ 

There was no one to lead her among all the children she bore; there was no one to take her by the hand among all the children she raised.

Yes, ¹  I will restore you to health. I will heal your wounds. I, the Lord, affirm it! ²  For you have been called an outcast, Zion, whom no one cares for.”