Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave in the cliff of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why have you done this to us?” He said to them, “I have only done to them what they have done to me.”

The Lord shatters ¹  his adversaries; ²  he thunders against them from ³  the heavens. The Lord executes judgment to the ends of the earth. He will strengthen ⁴  his king and exalt the power ⁵  of his anointed one.” ⁶ 

David replied to Ahimelech the priest, “The king instructed me to do something, but he said to me, ‘Don’t let anyone know the reason I am sending you or the instructions I have given you.’ ¹  I have told my soldiers ²  to wait at a certain place. ³ 

The bottom floor of the extension was seven and a half feet ¹  wide, the middle floor nine feet ²  wide, and the third floor ten and a half ³  feet wide. He made ledges ⁴  on the temple’s outer walls so the beams would not have to be inserted into the walls. ⁵ 

King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she requested, besides what he had freely offered her. ¹  Then she left and returned ²  to her homeland with her attendants.

Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ¹  like the festival celebrated in Judah. ²  On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the calves he had made. ³  In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places he had made.

The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser ¹  from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem, ²  along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went ³  and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth. ⁴ 

Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹  ‘With my many chariots ²  I climbed up the high mountains, the slopes of Lebanon. I cut down its tall cedars, and its best evergreens. I invaded its most remote regions, ³  its thickest woods.

The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up ¹  and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.

David said to Ornan, “Sell me the threshing floor ¹  so I can build ²  on it an altar for the Lord – I’ll pay top price ³  – so that the plague may be removed ⁴  from the people.”

Early the next morning they marched out to the Desert of Tekoa. When they were ready to march, Jehoshaphat stood up and said: “Listen to me, you people of Judah ¹  and residents of Jerusalem! Trust in the Lord your God and you will be safe! ²  Trust in the message of his prophets and you will win.”

“Everything that has happened to us has come about because of our wicked actions and our great guilt. Even so, our God, you have exercised restraint ¹  toward our iniquities and have given us a remnant such as this.

Through your messengers you taunted the sovereign master, ¹  ‘With my many chariots I climbed up the high mountains, the slopes of Lebanon. I cut down its tall cedars and its best evergreens. I invaded its most remote regions, ²  its thickest woods.

“‘For the Lord says concerning the palace of the king of Judah, “This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me. It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes. But I swear that I will make it like a wilderness whose towns have all been deserted. ¹ 

So I, the Lord, affirm that ¹  I will send for all the peoples of the north ²  and my servant, ³  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy ⁴  this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it ⁵  and make them everlasting ruins. ⁶  I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn. ⁷ 

The terror you inspire in others ¹  and the arrogance of your heart have deceived you. You may make your home in the clefts of the rocks; you may occupy the highest places in the hills. ²  But even if you made your home where the eagles nest, I would bring you down from there,” says the Lord.

Into his right hand ¹  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ²  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ³  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.

I saw ¹  a wall all around the outside of the temple. ²  In the man’s hand was a measuring stick 10½ feet ³  long. He measured the thickness of the wall ⁴  as 10½ feet, ⁵  and its height as 10½ feet.

shouting, “Men of Israel, ¹  help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, ²  and this sanctuary! ³  Furthermore ⁴  he has brought Greeks into the inner courts of the temple ⁵  and made this holy place ritually unclean!” ⁶