During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ¹  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ²  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹  and our children are just like their children, ²  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ³  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ⁴  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ⁵ 

So let their children die of starvation. Let them be cut down by the sword. ¹  Let their wives lose their husbands and children. Let the older men die of disease ²  and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

“In this way Aaron is to enter into the sanctuary – with a young bull ¹  for a sin offering ²  and a ram for a burnt offering. ³ 

“Blood guilt ¹  will be accounted to any man ²  from the house of Israel ³  who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, ⁴ 

God sent a spirit to stir up hostility ¹  between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. He made the leaders of Shechem disloyal ²  to Abimelech.

Samson then said, “With the jawbone of a donkey I have left them in heaps; ¹  with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men!”

But you will not build the temple; your very own son will build the temple for my honor.’ ¹ 

He found another man and said, “Wound me!” So the man wounded him severely. ¹ 

‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ¹  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed ¹  at Riblah in the territory ²  of Hamath. So Judah was deported from its land.

But you will not build the temple; your very own son will build the temple for my honor.’ ¹ 

his archers ¹  surround me. Without pity ²  he pierces ³  my kidneys and pours out my gall ⁴  on the ground.

When he pulls it out ¹  and it comes out of his back, the gleaming point ²  out of his liver, terrors come over him.

Lord, you have heard ¹  the request ²  of the oppressed; you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. ³ 

Rescue me from the guilt of murder, ¹  O God, the God who delivers me! Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. ² 

Wild dogs will yip in her ruined fortresses, jackals will yelp in the once-splendid palaces. ¹  Her time is almost up, ²  her days will not be prolonged. ³ 

I will threaten Ariel, and she will mourn intensely and become like an altar hearth ¹  before me.

‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ¹  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee. Panic will grip them. Pain and anguish will seize them like a woman in labor.