He answered, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, ¹  will send his angel with you. He will make your journey a success and you will find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.

When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep ¹  with me because I have paid for your services ²  with my son’s mandrakes.” So he had marital relations ³  with her that night.

¹ So Moses went back ²  to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Let me go, so that I may return ³  to my relatives ⁴  in Egypt and see ⁵  if they are still alive.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

Then the priest will put the woman under oath and say to the her, “If no other ¹  man has had sexual relations with you, and if you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. ² 

discard the clothing she was wearing when captured, ¹  and stay ²  in your house, lamenting for her father and mother for a full month. After that you may have sexual relations ³  with her and become her husband and she your wife.

But his father and mother said to him, “Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our ¹  people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.” ²  But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, ³  because she is the right one for me.” ⁴ 

They were having a good time, ¹  when suddenly ²  some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, ³  surrounded the house and kept beating ⁴  on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.” ⁵ 

Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be rewarded by the Lord because he ¹  has shown loyalty to the living on behalf of the dead!” ²  Then Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours; he is our guardian.” ³ 

This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on you ¹  from inside your own household! ²  Right before your eyes I will take your wives and hand them over to your companion. ³  He will have sexual relations with ⁴  your wives in broad daylight! ⁵ 

Then David went to his palace ¹  in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. ²  Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. ³  They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

They came from nations about which the Lord had warned the Israelites, “You must not establish friendly relations with them! ¹  If you do, they will surely shift your allegiance to their gods.” ²  But Solomon was irresistibly attracted to them. ³ 

“Son of man, your brothers, ¹  your relatives, ²  and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem ³  have said, ‘They have gone ⁴  far away from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.’

They trample ¹  on the dirt-covered heads of the poor; ²  they push the destitute away. ³  A man and his father go to the same girl; ⁴  in this way they show disrespect ⁵  for my moral purity. ⁶ 

For our reason for confidence ¹  is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives ²  and sincerity which are from God ³  – not by human wisdom ⁴  but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more ⁵  toward you.

Uriah replied to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and my lord’s soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and have marital relations ¹  with my wife? As surely as you are alive, ²  I will not do this thing!”

Now it happened just as the Lord had said! My cousin Hanamel ¹  came to me in the courtyard of the guardhouse. He said to me, ‘Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Buy it for yourself since you are entitled as my closest relative to take possession of it for yourself.’ When this happened, I recognized that the Lord had indeed spoken to me.