ר (Resh) Look, O Lord! Consider! ¹  Whom have you ever afflicted ²  like this? Should women eat their offspring, ³  their healthy infants? ⁴  Should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s ⁵  sanctuary?

The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi daughter of Zur. He was a leader ¹  over the people of a clan of Midian. ² 

because they bring trouble to you by their treachery with which they have deceived ¹  you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, ²  their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague that happened as a result of Peor.”

Isn’t this David, of whom they sang as they danced, ¹  ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, but David his tens of thousands’?”

All the people of the land celebrated, for the city had rest now that they had killed Athaliah with the sword in the royal palace.

When he had secured control of the kingdom, ¹  he executed the servants who had assassinated his father. ² 

On the same day they slaughtered their sons for their idols, they came to my sanctuary to desecrate it. This is what they have done in the middle of my house.

I will send a plague into the city ¹  and bloodshed into its streets; the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it ²  from every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

If anyone is meant for captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, ¹  then by the sword he must be killed. This ²  requires steadfast endurance ³  and faith from the saints.

“And you, son of man, prophesy, and clap your hands together. Let the sword strike twice, even three times! It is a sword for slaughter, a sword for the great slaughter surrounding them.

Which of the trees of Eden was like you in majesty and loftiness? You will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword! This is what will happen to Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

But God turned away from them and gave them over ¹  to worship the host ²  of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices ³  forty years in the wilderness, was it, ⁴  house of Israel?

The residents of Jerusalem ¹  made his youngest son Ahaziah king in his place, for the raiding party that invaded the city with the Arabs had killed all the older sons. ²  So Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.

These are the names of David’s warriors: Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was head of the officers. ¹  He killed eight hundred men with his spear in one battle. ² 

So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Ahaziah’s son Joash and sneaked ¹  him away from the rest of the royal descendants who were to be executed. She hid him and his nurse in the room where the bed covers were stored. ²  So he was hidden from Athaliah and escaped execution. ³ 

Everyone who is caught will be stabbed; everyone who is seized ¹  will die ²  by the sword.

ד (Dalet) He prepared his bow ¹  like an enemy; his right hand was ready to shoot. ²  Like a foe he killed everyone, even our strong young men; ³  he has poured out his anger like fire on the tent ⁴  of Daughter Zion.

And although you were ¹  dead ²  in your transgressions and sins,

‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to them, he killed them in the wilderness.’

The donkey saw me and turned from me these three times. If ¹  she had not turned from me, I would have killed you but saved her alive.”