Why should you be like someone who is helpless, ¹  like a champion ²  who cannot save anyone? You are indeed with us, ³  and we belong to you. ⁴  Do not abandon us!”

Therefore, the Lord says, “Ask the people of other nations whether they have heard of anything like this. Israel should have been like a virgin. But she has done something utterly revolting!

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 

Then the officials and all the people rendered their verdict to the priests and the prophets. They said, ¹  “This man should not be condemned to die. ²  For he has spoken to us under the authority of the Lord our God.” ³ 

There is no reason why you and your people should die in war ¹  or from starvation or disease! ²  That’s what the Lord says will happen to any nation ³  that will not be subject to the king of Babylon.

“Son of man, these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed the obstacle leading to their iniquity ¹  right before their faces. Should I really allow them to seek ²  me?

“Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not suffer ¹  for his father’s iniquity?’ When the son does what is just and right, and observes all my statutes and carries them out, he will surely live.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: If the prince should give a gift to one of his sons as ¹  his inheritance, it will belong to his sons, it is their property by inheritance.

The vision of the evenings and mornings that was told to you is correct. ¹  But you should seal up the vision, for it refers to a time many days from now.”

But you should go your way ¹  until the end. ²  You will rest and then at the end of the days you will arise to receive ³  what you have been allotted.” ⁴ 

Should I ¹  not be even more ²  concerned ³  about Nineveh, this enormous city? ⁴  There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, ⁵  as well as many animals!” ⁶ 

He will give us peace. ¹  Should the Assyrians try to invade our land and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, ²  we will send ³  against them seven ⁴  shepherd-rulers, ⁵  make that eight commanders. ⁶ 

Will the Lord accept a thousand rams, or ten thousand streams of olive oil? Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion, my offspring – my own flesh and blood – for my sin? ¹ 

I will stand at my watch post; I will remain stationed on the city wall. ¹  I will keep watching, so I can see what he says to me and can know ²  how I should answer when he counters my argument. ³ 

by asking both the priests of the temple ¹  of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, ²  fasting as we have done over the years?”

Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem ¹  was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah ²  were also populated?

From the days of your ancestors you have ignored ¹  my commandments ²  and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’

Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? ¹  You have done things to me that should not be done!” ² 

Stay there ¹  until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I’ll send someone to bring you back from there. ²  Why should I lose both of you in one day?” ³ 

Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the field when they heard the news. ¹  They ²  were offended ³  and very angry because Shechem ⁴  had disgraced Israel ⁵  by sexually assaulting ⁶  Jacob’s daughter, a crime that should not be committed. ⁷