I will make all my mountains into a road; I will construct my roadways.”

Highways are empty, ¹  there are no travelers. ²  Treaties are broken, ³  witnesses are despised, ⁴  human life is treated with disrespect. ⁵ 

How blessed are those who ¹  find their strength in you, and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! ² 

So ¹  the master said to his ²  slave, ‘Go out to the highways ³  and country roads ⁴  and urge ⁵  people ⁶  to come in, so that my house will be filled. ⁷ 

In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael caravans ¹  disappeared; ²  travelers ³  had to go on winding side roads.

Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat ¹  and lure them ²  away from the city into the main roads.”

The rest ¹  turned and ran toward the wilderness, heading toward the cliff of Rimmon. But the Israelites ²  caught ³  five thousand of them on the main roads. They stayed right on their heels ⁴  all the way to Gidom and struck down two thousand more.

So go into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’

They are eager to do evil, ¹  quick to shed innocent blood. ²  Their thoughts are sinful; they crush and destroy. ³ 

The Benjaminites attacked ¹  the army, leaving the city unguarded. ²  They began to strike down their enemy ³  just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, ⁴  the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down ⁵  about thirty Israelites.

And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

From the sky ¹  the stars ²  fought, from their paths in the heavens ³  they fought against Sisera.

Her ways are very pleasant, ¹  and all her paths are peaceful.

At the top ¹  of the elevated places along the way, at the intersection ²  of the paths she takes her stand;

Because of Israel’s sins ¹  this is what the Lord, the God who commands armies, the sovereign One, ²  says: “In all the squares there will be wailing, in all the streets they will mourn the dead. ³  They will tell the field workers ⁴  to lament and the professional mourners ⁵  to wail.

I will send the wild animals ¹  against you and they will bereave you of your children, ²  annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population ³  so that your roads will become deserted.

With the timber the king made steps ¹  for the Lord’s temple and royal palace as well as stringed instruments ²  for the musicians. No one had seen anything like them in the land of Judah prior to that. ³ )

Yet my people have forgotten me and offered sacrifices to worthless idols! This makes them stumble along in the way they live and leave the old reliable path of their fathers. ¹  They have left them to walk in bypaths, in roads that are not smooth and level. ² 

For he is the one about whom Isaiah the prophet had spoken: ¹  “The voice ²  of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make ³  his paths straight.’” ⁴