So get up now and go out and give some encouragement to ¹  your servants. For I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out there, not a single man will stay here with you tonight! This disaster will be worse for you than any disaster that has overtaken you from your youth right to the present time!”

His servants advised ¹  him, “A young virgin must be found for our master, the king, ²  to take care of the king’s needs ³  and serve as his nurse. She can also sleep with you ⁴  and keep our master, the king, warm.” ⁵ 

the food in his banquet hall, ¹  his servants and attendants, ²  their robes, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings which he presented in the Lord’s temple, she was amazed. ³ 

The king ¹  sent a third captain and his fifty soldiers. This third captain went up and fell ²  on his knees before Elijah. He begged for mercy, “Prophet, please have respect for my life and for the lives of these fifty servants of yours.

His servants approached and said to him, “O master, ¹  if the prophet had told you to do some difficult task, ²  you would have been willing to do it. ³  It seems you should be happy that he simply said, “Wash and you will be healed.” ⁴ 

So the palace supervisor, ¹  the city commissioner, ²  the leaders, ³  and the guardians sent this message to Jehu, “We are your subjects! ⁴  Whatever you say, we will do. We will not make anyone king. Do what you consider proper.” ⁵ 

Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went to the temple of Baal. Jehu ¹  said to the servants of Baal, “Make sure there are no servants of the Lord here with you; there must be only servants of Baal.” ² 

His servants transported his dead body ¹  from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head, ²  and made him king in his father’s place.

The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ¹ 

the food in his banquet hall, ¹  his servants and attendants ²  in their robes, his cupbearers in their robes, and his burnt sacrifices which he presented in the Lord’s temple, ³  she was amazed. ⁴ 

may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed ¹  against you – both I myself and my family ²  have sinned.

Please, ¹  O Lord, listen attentively ²  to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect ³  to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me ⁴  in the presence of this man.” Now ⁵  I was cupbearer for the king.

This is what the Lord says: “When ¹  juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes, someone says, ‘Don’t destroy it, for it contains juice.’ ²  So I will do for the sake of my servants – I will not destroy everyone. ³ 

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by my servants ¹  the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days ²  that I would bring you against them?

But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it will be his until the year of liberty; ¹  then it will revert to the prince. His inheritance will only remain with his sons.

But have my words and statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, not outlived your fathers? ¹  Then they paid attention ²  and confessed, ‘The Lord who rules over all has indeed done what he said he would do to us, because of our sinful ways.’”

So Joseph went up to bury his father; all Pharaoh’s officials went with him – the senior courtiers ¹  of his household, all the senior officials of the land of Egypt,

When the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, some of David’s soldiers ¹  fell in battle. Uriah the Hittite also died.

This made the king of Syria upset. ¹  So he summoned his advisers ²  and said to them, “One of us must be helping the king of Israel.” ³ 

David placed garrisons in the territory of the Arameans of Damascus; ¹  the Arameans became David’s subjects and brought tribute. The Lord protected ²  David wherever he campaigned. ³