But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “The only way I will make a treaty with you is if you let me gouge out the right eye of every one of you and in so doing humiliate all Israel!”

The priest said to them, “Go with confidence. ¹  The Lord will be with you on your mission.” ² 

Do you fix your eye ¹  on such a one? ²  And do you bring me ³  before you for judgment?

The one who winks his eyes ¹  devises perverse things, and ²  one who compresses his lips ³  brings about ⁴  evil.

I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me; ¹  I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me. ² 

not like those who do their work only when someone is watching ¹  – as people-pleasers – but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. ² 

(Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium.

“Therefore, as surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord, because you defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominable practices, I will withdraw; my eye will not pity you, nor will I spare ¹  you.

You must destroy ¹  all the people whom the Lord your God is about to deliver over to you; you must not pity them or worship ²  their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

ע (Ayin) I weep because of these things; my eyes ¹  flow with tears. ²  For there is no one in sight who can comfort me ³  or encourage me. ⁴  My children ⁵  are desolated ⁶  because an enemy has prevailed.

You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent ¹  from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ¹  they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ²  they will not ³  look with pity on children.

Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said,

Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye. ¹ 

But Saul (also known as Paul), ¹  filled with the Holy Spirit, ²  stared straight ³  at him

Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude ¹  be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite ²  and you do not lend ³  him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned. ⁴ 

The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.

Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, ¹  to watch out for those who create dissensions and obstacles contrary to the teaching that you learned. Avoid them!

You will see trouble in my dwelling place! ¹  Israel will experience blessings, ²  but there will not be an old man in your ³  house for all time. ⁴ 

Many nations have now assembled against you. They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, ¹  so we can gloat over Zion!” ²