So Laban asked, ¹  “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” ²  Jacob replied, ³  “but if you agree to this one condition, ⁴  I will continue to care for ⁵  your flocks and protect them:

in Shiloh in the land of Canaan and said, “The Lord told Moses to assign us cities in which to live along with the grazing areas for our cattle.”

Each of these cities had grazing areas around it; they were alike in this regard. ¹ 

The Beloved to the Maidens: My beloved has gone down to his garden, ¹  to the flowerbeds of balsam spices, ²  to graze ³  in the gardens, and to gather lilies. ⁴ 

“People of Babylonia, ¹  you plundered my people. ²  That made you happy and glad. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. ³  Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion. ⁴ 

The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, ¹  and the hills are clothed with joy. ² 

For they have devoured Jacob and destroyed his home.

who said, ¹  “Let’s take over ²  the pastures of God!”

I have seen slaves ¹  on horseback and princes walking on foot ²  like slaves.

I will destroy ¹  Daughter Zion, ²  who is as delicate and defenseless as a young maiden. ³ 

At the sound of your captains’ cry the waves will surge; ¹ 

The Levites even left their pasturelands and their property behind and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons prohibited them from serving as the Lord’s priests.

The poor will graze in my pastures; ¹  the needy will rest securely. But I will kill your root by famine; it will put to death all your survivors. ² 

Then I myself will regather those of my people ¹  who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. ²  They will greatly increase in number.

“I, the Lord who rules over all, say: ¹  ‘This place will indeed lie in ruins. There will be no people or animals in it. But there will again be in it and in its towns sheepfolds where shepherds can rest their sheep.

The city will have open spaces: On the north there will be 437½ feet, ¹  on the south 437½ feet, on the east 437½ feet, and on the west 437½ feet.

“Which one ¹  of you, if he has a hundred ²  sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture ³  and go look for ⁴  the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵ 

I will provide pasture ¹  for your livestock and you will eat your fill.”

Trust in the Lord and do what is right! Settle in the land and maintain your integrity! ¹ 

Do not reject me in my old age! ¹  When my strength fails, do not abandon me!