If, as far as the priest can see, the scall has stayed the same ¹  and black hair has sprouted in it, the scall has been healed; the person is clean. So the priest is to pronounce him clean. ² 

On the first day you must take for yourselves branches from majestic trees ¹  – palm branches, branches of leafy trees, and willows of the brook – and you must rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.

She made him go to sleep on her lap ¹  and then called a man in to shave off ²  the seven braids of his hair. ³  She made him vulnerable ⁴  and his strength left him.

But Naomi replied, “Go back home, my daughters! There is no reason for you to return to Judah with me! ¹  I am no longer capable of giving birth to sons who might become your husbands! ² 

surely you would not want to wait until they were old enough to marry! ¹  Surely you would not remain unmarried all that time! ²  No, ³  my daughters, you must not return with me. ⁴  For my intense suffering ⁵  is too much for you to bear. ⁶  For the Lord is afflicting me!” ⁷ 

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 

For this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The jar of flour will not be empty and the jug of oil will not run out until the day the Lord makes it rain on the surface of the ground.’”

All of them were wanting ¹  to scare us, supposing, “Their hands will grow slack from the work, and it won’t get done.” So now, strengthen my hands! ² 

Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. ¹  All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence. ² 

lest I become satisfied and act deceptively ¹  and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I become poor and steal and demean ²  the name of my God.

Sow your seed in the morning, and do not stop working ¹  until the evening; ²  for you do not know which activity ³  will succeed ⁴  – whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally. ⁵ 

So remember ¹  your Creator in the days of your youth – before ²  the difficult ³  days come, and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;

Even if only a tenth of the people remain in the land, it will again be destroyed, ¹  like one of the large sacred trees ²  or an Asherah pole, when a sacred pillar on a high place is thrown down. ³  That sacred pillar symbolizes the special chosen family.” ⁴ 

Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines, just because the club that beat you has been broken! ¹  For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root, and its fruit will be a darting adder. ² 

For this reason my stomach churns; ¹  cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed ²  by what I hear, horrified by what I see.

Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp, I coo ¹  like a dove; my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. ²  O sovereign master, ³  I am oppressed; help me! ⁴ 

Look, the sovereign Lord helps me. Who dares to condemn me? Look, all of them will wear out like clothes; a moth will eat away at them.

Then you will find joy in your relationship to the Lord, ¹  and I will give you great prosperity, ²  and cause crops to grow on the land I gave to your ancestor Jacob.” ³  Know for certain that the Lord has spoken. ⁴ 

But those who harvest the grain ¹  will eat it, and will praise the Lord. Those who pick the grapes will drink the wine ²  in the courts of my holy sanctuary.”