Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality.

If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison ¹  while the rest of you go ²  and take grain back for your hungry families. ³ 

The following is a record of the territory assigned to the Israelites in the land of Canaan by Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the Israelite tribal leaders. ¹ 

He gave him ¹  the blueprints of all he envisioned ²  for the courts of the Lord’s temple, all the surrounding rooms, the storehouses of God’s temple, and the storehouses for the holy items.

These are the ones that came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha, Kerub, Addon, and Immer (although they were unable to certify ¹  their family connection ²  or their ancestry, ³  as to whether they really were from Israel):

Those who accumulate houses are as good as dead, ¹  those who also accumulate landed property ²  until there is no land left, ³  and you are the only landowners remaining within the land. ⁴ 

For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion. They will wail, ¹  ‘We are utterly ruined! ²  We are completely disgraced! For our houses have been torn down and we must leave our land.’” ³ 

‘Death has climbed in ¹  through our windows. It has entered into our fortified houses. It has taken away our children who play in the streets. It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’

Come from far away and attack Babylonia! ¹  Open up the places where she stores her grain! Pile her up in ruins! ²  Destroy her completely! ³  Do not leave anyone alive! ⁴ 

whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets.

Israel has forgotten his Maker and built royal palaces, and Judah has built many fortified cities. But I will send fire on their cities; it will consume their royal citadels.

And you must not eat any blood of the birds or the domesticated land animals in any of the places where you live. ¹ 

These were the ones chosen ¹  from the community, leaders ²  of their ancestral tribes. ³  They were the heads of the thousands ⁴  of Israel.

In the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins ¹  around them,

Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers who were guarding the storerooms at the gates.

Then all of Judah brought the tithe of the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil to the storerooms.

I myself ¹  have seen the fool ²  taking root, but suddenly I cursed his place of residence. ³ 

He returns no more to his house, nor does his place of residence ¹  know him ²  any more.

‘Surely such is the residence ¹  of an evil man; and this is the place of one who has not known God.’” ² 

For he has oppressed the poor and abandoned them; ¹  he has seized a house which he did not build. ²