So the three elite warriors broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate. They carried it back to David, but he refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord

Certainly my master is aware of what I did ¹  when Jezebel was killing the Lord’s prophets. I hid one hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves in two groups of fifty and I brought them food and water.

When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave. All of a sudden ¹  a voice asked him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”

He said, “Capture them alive!” So they captured them alive and then executed all forty-two of them in the cistern at Beth Eked. He left no survivors.

So the three elite warriors ¹  broke through the Philistine forces and drew some water from the cistern in Bethlehem near the city gate. They carried it back to David, but David refused to drink it. He poured it out as a drink offering to the Lord

By David. To you, O Lord, I cry out! My protector, ²  do not ignore me! ³  If you do not respond to me, ⁴  I will join ⁵  those who are descending into the grave. ⁶ 

Should good be paid back with evil? Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ¹  Just remember how I stood before you pleading on their behalf ²  to keep you from venting your anger on them. ³ 

“Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ¹ 

So Ebed Melech took the men with him and went to a room under the treasure room in the palace. ¹  He got some worn-out clothes and old rags ²  from there and let them down by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.

So the king gave the order, ¹  and Daniel was brought and thrown into a den ²  of lions. The king consoled ³  Daniel by saying, “Your God whom you continually serve will rescue you!”

As he approached the den, he called out to Daniel in a worried voice, ¹  “Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God whom you continually serve able to rescue you from the lions?”

But this will be the nature of the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will decay while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot away in their sockets, and their tongues will dissolve in their mouths.

Sell your possessions ¹  and give to the poor. ²  Provide yourselves purses that do not wear out – a treasure in heaven ³  that never decreases, ⁴  where no thief approaches and no moth ⁵  destroys.

You also know that ¹  the angels who did not keep within their proper domain ²  but abandoned their own place of residence, he has kept ³  in eternal chains ⁴  in utter ⁵  darkness, locked up ⁶  for the judgment of the great Day.

He ¹  shouted with a powerful voice: “Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great! She ²  has become a lair for demons, a haunt ³  for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detested beast. ⁴ 

Isaac reopened ¹  the wells that had been dug ²  back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up ³  after Abraham died. Isaac ⁴  gave these wells ⁵  the same names his father had given them. ⁶ 

When Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, ¹  and the sheep of his uncle Laban, he ²  went over ³  and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of his uncle Laban. ⁴ 

Reuben continued, ¹  “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” ²  (Reuben said this ³  so he could rescue Joseph ⁴  from them ⁵  and take him back to his father.)

Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure ¹  fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”

Benaiah son of Jehoida was a brave warrior ¹  from Kabzeel who performed great exploits. He struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab. ²  He also went down and killed a lion in a cistern on a snowy day.