Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, ¹  for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”

Then the woman said, “Please permit your servant to speak to my lord the king about another matter.” He replied, “Tell me.”

Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. ¹ 

Then the slave threw himself to the ground ¹  before him, saying, ²  ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’

Then his fellow slave threw himself down and begged him, ¹  ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you.’

I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship ¹  from God – given to me for you – in order to complete ²  the word of God,

no longer as a slave, ¹  but more than a slave, as a dear brother. He is especially so to me, and even more so to you now, both humanly speaking ²  and in the Lord.

The Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”

You must also say, ‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” ¹  Jacob thought, ²  “I will first appease him ³  by sending a gift ahead of me. ⁴  After that I will meet him. ⁵  Perhaps he will accept me.” ⁶ 

until the Lord gives your brothers a place like yours to settle and they conquer the land the Lord your God is ready to hand over to them. Then you may go back to your allotted land and occupy the land Moses the Lord’s servant assigned you east of the Jordan.” ¹ 

just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. As described in the law scroll of Moses, it was made with uncut stones untouched by an iron tool. ¹  They offered burnt sacrifices on it and sacrificed tokens of peace. ² 

They said to Joshua, “It was carefully reported to your subjects ¹  how the Lord your God commanded Moses his servant to assign you the whole land and to destroy all who live in the land from before you. Because of you we were terrified ²  we would lose our lives, so we did this thing.

But the Levites will not have an allotted portion among you, for their inheritance is to serve the Lord. ¹  Gad, Reuben, and the half-tribe of Manasseh have already received their allotted land ²  east of the Jordan which Moses the Lord’s servant assigned them.”

Now the Lord your God has made your fellow Israelites secure, ¹  just as he promised them. So now you may turn around and go to your homes ²  in your own land ³  which Moses the Lord’s servant assigned to you east of the Jordan.

After all, ¹  you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession, ²  just as you, O sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

On the fifteenth day after the festival started, ¹  he dismissed the people. They asked God to empower the king ²  and then went to their homes, happy and content ³  because of all the good the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.

You must obey ¹  all I command you to do, follow my instructions, ²  do what I approve, ³  and keep my rules and commandments, like my servant David did. Then I will be with you and establish for you a lasting dynasty, as I did for David; ⁴  I will give you Israel.

When it was time for the evening offering, ¹  Elijah the prophet approached the altar ²  and prayed: “O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, prove ³  today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

So they put sackcloth around their waists and ropes on their heads and went to the king of Israel. They said, “Your servant ¹  Ben Hadad says, ‘Please let me live!’” Ahab ²  replied, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.” ³ 

Now Elisha went back to Gilgal, while there was famine in the land. Some of the prophets were visiting him ¹  and he told his servant, “Put the big pot on the fire ²  and boil some stew for the prophets.” ³