Listen, Israel: Today you are about to cross the Jordan so you can dispossess the nations there, people greater and stronger than you who live in large cities with extremely high fortifications. ¹ 

All Jerusalem was terrified ¹  because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai and all its men were warriors.

When a leader died, the next generation ¹  would again ²  act more wickedly than the previous one. ³  They would follow after other gods, worshiping them ⁴  and bowing down to them. They did not give up ⁵  their practices or their stubborn ways.

Are you really better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he dare to quarrel with Israel? Did he dare to fight with them? ¹ 

He will encourage you and provide for you when you are old, ¹  for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has given him birth. She ²  is better to you than seven sons!”

Finally her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and not eat? Why are you so sad? ¹  Am I not better to you than ten ²  sons?”

Then Amnon greatly despised her. ¹  His disdain toward her surpassed the love he had previously felt toward her. ²  Amnon said to her, “Get up and leave!”

Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Arkite sounds better than the advice of Ahithophel.” Now the Lord had decided ¹  to frustrate the sound advice of Ahithophel, so that the Lord could bring disaster on Absalom.

Amaziah asked the prophet: ¹  “But what should I do about the hundred talents of silver I paid the Israelite troops?” The prophet ²  replied, “The Lord is capable of giving you more than that.”

So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.

Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not enter your brother’s house in the day of your disaster; a neighbor nearby is better than a brother far away. ¹ 

I will increase the number of people and animals on you; they will increase and be fruitful. ¹  I will cause you to be inhabited as in ancient times, and will do more good for you than at the beginning of your history. ²  Then you will know that I am the Lord.

In every matter of wisdom and ¹  insight the king asked them about, he found them to be ten times ²  better than any of the magicians and astrologers that were in his entire empire.

As for me, this mystery was revealed to me not because I possess more wisdom ¹  than any other living person, but so that the king may understand ²  the interpretation and comprehend the thoughts of your mind. ³ 

Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and his disposition changed ¹  toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders ²  to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.

Should I ¹  not be even more ²  concerned ³  about Nineveh, this enormous city? ⁴  There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, ⁵  as well as many animals!” ⁶ 

Look at the birds in the sky: ¹  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ²  them. Aren’t you more valuable ³  than they are?

The queen of the South ¹  will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon – and now, ²  something greater than Solomon is here!

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have ¹  two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell. ² 

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have ¹  two hands and go into hell, ²  to the unquenchable fire. ³