I am insignificant and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.

“Moab will be crushed. Her children will cry out in distress. ¹ 

“It is not our custom here,” ¹  Laban replied, “to give the younger daughter in marriage ²  before the firstborn.

They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest. ¹  The men looked at each other in astonishment. ² 

There is little Benjamin, their ruler, ¹  and the princes of Judah in their robes, ²  along with the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.

The least of you will multiply into ¹  a thousand; the smallest of you will become a large nation. When the right time comes, I the Lord will quickly do this!” ² 

Later the older daughter said ¹  to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby ²  to have sexual relations with us, ³  according to the way of all the world.

So they made their father drunk ¹  that night as well, and the younger one came and had sexual relations with him. ²  But he was not aware that she had sexual relations with him and then got up. ³ 

The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. ¹  He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

and the Lord said to her, “Two nations ¹  are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated from within you. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.”

Gideon ¹  said to him, “But Lord, ²  how ³  can I deliver Israel? Just look! My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my family.” ⁴ 

“But now they mock me, those who are younger ¹  than I, whose fathers I disdained too much ²  to put with my sheep dogs. ³ 

So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: ¹  “I am young, ²  but you are elderly; that is why I was fearful, ³  and afraid to explain ⁴  to you what I know.

The leading men of the cities send their servants for water. They go to the cisterns, ¹  but they do not find any water there. They return with their containers ²  empty. Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands. ³ 

So in the morning the older daughter ¹  said to the younger, “Since I had sexual relations with my father last night, let’s make him drunk again tonight. ²  Then you go and have sexual relations with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” ³ 

Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim’s head, although he was the younger. ¹  Crossing his hands, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration: ¹  “The man who attempts to rebuild ²  this city of Jericho ³  will stand condemned before the Lord. ⁴  He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!” ⁵ 

Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

During Ahab’s reign, ¹  Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho. ²  Abiram, his firstborn son, died when he laid the foundation; ³  Segub, his youngest son, died when he erected its gates, ⁴  just as the Lord had warned ⁵  through Joshua son of Nun. ⁶ 

So listen to what I, the Lord, have planned against Edom, what I intend to do to ¹  the people who live in Teman. ²  Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. ³