And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances – those by which an individual, if he obeys them, ¹  will live. They boldly turned from you; ²  they rebelled ³  and did not obey.

The angel of God, who was going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them, and the pillar ¹  of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.

Now David had run away and escaped. He went to Samuel in Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.

When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before his brother Abishai and went into the city. Joab withdrew from fighting the Ammonites and returned to ¹  Jerusalem. ² 

When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. ¹ 

The priests left the holy place. ¹  All the priests who participated had consecrated themselves, no matter which division they represented. ² 

But then Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem humbled themselves and abandoned their pride, and the Lord was not angry with them for the rest of Hezekiah’s reign. ¹ 

At that time ¹  you will say: “I praise you, O Lord, for even though you were angry with me, your anger subsided, and you consoled me.

When the chief adviser heard the king of Assyria had departed from Lachish, he left and went to Libnah, where the king was campaigning. ¹ 

I was angry because of their sinful greed; I attacked them and angrily rejected them, ¹  yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. ² 

The commanding officer ¹  took him by the hand, withdrew privately, and asked, “What is it that you want ²  to report to me?”

But Onan knew that the child ¹  would not be considered his. ²  So whenever ³  he had sexual relations with ⁴  his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely ⁵  so as not to give his brother a descendant.

Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. ¹  Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.

In rage the king arose from the banquet of wine and withdrew to the palace garden. Meanwhile, Haman stood to beg Queen Esther for his life, ¹  for he realized that the king had now determined a catastrophic end for him. ² 

ג (Gimel) In fierce anger ¹  he destroyed ²  the whole army ³  of Israel. He withdrew his right hand ⁴  as the enemy attacked. ⁵  He was like a raging fire in the land of Jacob; ⁶  it consumed everything around it. ⁷ 

“It will not be like the covenant ¹  that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I had no regard for them, says the Lord.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained ¹  with us. But ²  they went out from us ³  to demonstrate ⁴  that all of them do not belong to us. ⁵ 

Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. Joab ¹  blew the trumpet, and his men ²  dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. ³  Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

The Lord sent a messenger ¹  and he wiped out all the soldiers, princes, and officers in the army of the king of Assyria. So Sennacherib ²  returned home humiliated. ³  When he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons ⁴  struck him down with the sword.

When ¹  the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem ²  and see this thing that has taken place, that the Lord ³  has made known to us.”