Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sin has been your downfall! ¹ 

That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. ¹ 

For surely his concern is not for angels, but he is concerned for Abraham’s descendants.

When her master ¹  got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went outside to start on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, sprawled out on the doorstep of the house with her hands on the threshold.

The Jews assembled themselves in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to strike out against those who were seeking their harm. No one was able to stand before them, for dread of them fell on all the peoples.

While this one was still speaking, ¹  another messenger arrived ²  and said, “The fire of God ³  has fallen from heaven ⁴  and has burned up the sheep and the servants – it has consumed them! And I – only I alone – escaped to tell you!”

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, ¹  a refugee came to me from Jerusalem ²  saying, “The city has been defeated!” ³ 

Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but ¹  God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; ²  otherwise you also will be cut off.

If his head is bare on the forehead ¹  so that he is balding in front, ²  he is clean.

When the men of Judah ¹  arrived at the observation post overlooking the desert and looked at ²  the huge army, they saw dead bodies on the ground; there were no survivors!

Everyone rejects God; ¹  they are all morally corrupt. ²  None of them does what is right, ³  not even one!

Justice is driven back; godliness ¹  stands far off. Indeed, ²  honesty stumbles in the city square and morality is not even able to enter.

But even the swiftest cannot get away. Even the strongest cannot escape. ¹  There in the north by the Euphrates River they stumble and fall in defeat. ² 

For even Christ did not please himself, but just as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” ¹ 

In those days Israel had no king. And in those days the Danite tribe was looking for a place ¹  to settle, because at that time they did not yet have a place to call their own among the tribes of Israel. ² 

Your hands ¹  were not bound, and your feet were not put into irons. You fell the way one falls before criminals.” All the people ²  wept over him again.

Now Elisha had a terminal illness. ¹  King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. ²  He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot ³  and horsemen of Israel!” ⁴ 

We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹  We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; people to populate the world are not born. ² 

But Asahel ¹  refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him in the abdomen with the back end of his ²  spear. The spear came out his back; Asahel ³  collapsed on the spot and died there right before Abner. ⁴  Everyone who now comes to the place where Asahel fell dead pauses in respect. ⁵ 

Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹  pretended ²  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ³