Jehu encountered ¹  the relatives ²  of King Ahaziah of Judah. He asked, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are Ahaziah’s relatives. We have come down to see how ³  the king’s sons and the queen mother’s sons are doing.”

David assembled in Jerusalem ¹  all the officials of Israel, including the commanders of the tribes, the commanders of the army divisions that served the king, the commanders of units of a thousand and a hundred, the officials who were in charge of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, the eunuchs, and the warriors, including the most skilled of them.

At the beginning ¹  of the year the Syrian army attacked ²  Joash ³  and invaded Judah and Jerusalem. They wiped out all the leaders of the people and sent all the plunder they gathered to the king of Damascus.

I have stirred up one out of the north ¹  and he advances, one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. ²  He steps on ³  rulers as if they were clay, like a potter treading the clay.

“I, the Lord, also solemnly assert: ‘King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem ¹  or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. ² 

I took them to the Lord’s temple. I took them into the room where the disciples of the prophet Hanan son of Igdaliah stayed. ¹  That room was next to the one where the temple officers stayed and above the room where Maaseiah son of Shallum, one of the doorkeepers ²  of the temple, stayed.

All the officials sent Jehudi, who was the son of Nethaniah and the grandson of Cushi, to Baruch. They ordered him to tell Baruch, “Come here and bring with you ¹  the scroll you read in the hearing of the people.” ²  So Baruch son of Neriah went to them, carrying the scroll in his hand. ³ 

So these officials said to the king, “This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing ¹  the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying. ²  This ³  man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.” ⁴ 

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ¹  says, ‘You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared ²  and this city will not be burned down. Indeed, you and your whole family will be spared.

All the women who are left in the royal palace of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. They will taunt you saying, ¹  ‘Your trusted friends misled you; they have gotten the best of you. Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they have turned their backs on you.’ ² 

The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. ¹  Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.’ ² 

So the royal scribes ¹  were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month. Everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps ²  and governors who were in every province and to the officials of every people, province by province according to its script and people by people according to its language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

These were the men whom Moses and Aaron numbered ¹  along with the twelve leaders of Israel, each of whom ²  was from his own family.

And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said,

the Gadites and the Reubenites came and addressed Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the community. They said,

Joshua made a peace treaty with them and agreed to let them live. The leaders of the community ¹  sealed it with an oath. ² 

but all the leaders told the whole community, “We swore an oath to them in the name of ¹  the Lord God of Israel. So now we can’t hurt ²  them!

All the officers and warriors, as well as all of King David’s sons, pledged their allegiance to King Solomon. ¹ 

Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as the leader over his brothers, for he intended to name him his successor. ¹ 

Early the next morning King Hezekiah assembled the city officials and went up to the Lord’s temple.