If his sons reject my law and disobey my regulations,

Listen to my instruction ¹  so that you may be wise, ²  and do not neglect it.

Then Absalom sent a message to Joab asking him to send him to the king, but Joab was not willing to come to him. So he sent a second message to him, but he still was not willing to come.

Then Ahaziah son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my sailors join yours in the fleet,” ¹  but Jehoshaphat refused.

The Lord was with him; he succeeded in all his endeavors. ¹  He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to submit to him. ² 

Is it your opinion ¹  that God ²  should recompense it, because you reject this? ³  But you must choose, and not I, so tell us what you know.

“These people ¹  have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah ²  and melt in fear over Rezin and the son of Remaliah. ³ 

And as for them, ¹  whether they listen ²  or not – for they are a rebellious ³  house ⁴  – they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Go to the exiles, to your fellow countrymen, ¹  and speak to them – say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ whether they pay attention or not.”

I am about to discipline your children ¹  and will spread offal ²  on your faces, ³  the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

But he refused. Instead, he went out and threw him in prison until he repaid the debt.

Although it grieved the king deeply, ¹  he did not want to reject her request because of his oath and his guests.

For ¹  a while he refused, but later on ²  he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, ³ 

With flaming fire he will mete out ¹  punishment on those who do not know God ²  and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

But if anyone does not obey our message through this letter, take note of him and do not associate closely with him, so that he may be ashamed.

Thus ¹  people ²  were scorched by the terrible heat, ³  yet ⁴  they blasphemed the name of God, who has ruling authority ⁵  over these plagues, and they would not repent and give him glory.

When Pharaoh stubbornly refused ¹  to release us, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of people to the firstborn of animals. ²  That is why I am sacrificing ³  to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb, but all my firstborn sons I redeem.’

Therefore, if I come, ¹  I will call attention to the deeds he is doing ²  – the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church!

Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish? Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound? Will you let me down when I need you like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ¹ 

So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him – not by dreams nor by Urim ¹  nor by the prophets.