and put a knife to your throat ¹  if you possess a large appetite. ² 

Then Abraham reached out his hand, took the knife, and prepared to slaughter ¹  his son.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. Then he took the fire and the knife in his hand, ¹  and the two of them walked on together.

When he got home, he took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces. ¹  Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel. ² 

But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched it to Moses’ feet, ¹  and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood ²  to me.”

As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns ¹  of the scroll, the king ²  would cut them off with a penknife ³  and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. ⁴ 

For my enemies talk about me; those waiting for a chance to kill me plot my demise. ¹ 

who speak lies, and make false promises. ¹ 

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something that is outward in the flesh,

Beware of the dogs, ¹  beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! ² 

May those who seek my life be embarrassed and humiliated! May those who plan to harm me be turned back and ashamed! ¹ 

Grab me and rescue me from the power of foreigners, ¹  who speak lies, and make false promises. ² 

I will make it a wasteland; no one will prune its vines or hoe its ground, ¹  and thorns and briers will grow there. I will order the clouds not to drop any rain on it.

For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,

but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart ¹  by the Spirit ²  and not by the written code. ³  This person’s ⁴  praise is not from people but from God.

“Do not harm the boy!” ¹  the angel said. ²  “Do not do anything to him, for now I know ³  that you fear ⁴  God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.”

Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head. Those who want to destroy me, my enemies for no reason, ¹  outnumber me. ²  They make me repay what I did not steal! ³ 

“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor. ¹  Shave off some of the hair from your head and your beard. ²  Then take scales and divide up the hair you cut off.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab’s other hand, and Joab ¹  stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa’s ²  intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal. ³  Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.