Then the commanding officer ¹  came up and arrested ²  him and ordered him to be tied up with two chains; ³  he ⁴  then asked who he was and what ⁵  he had done.

So I asked, ¹  ‘What should I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up ²  and go to Damascus; there you will be told about everything ³  that you have been designated ⁴  to do.’

So the centurion ¹  took him and brought him to the commanding officer ²  and said, “The prisoner Paul called ³  me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.”

Because I was at a loss ¹  how I could investigate these matters, ²  I asked if he were willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried ³  there on these charges. ⁴ 

But God heard the boy’s voice. ¹  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ²  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ³  the boy’s voice right where he is crying.

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” ¹  He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, ²  “The men of this place will kill me to get ³  Rebekah because she is very beautiful.”

Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! ¹  He has tripped me up ²  two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

He turned aside to her along the road and said, “Come on! I want to have sex with you.” ¹  (He did not realize ²  it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, “What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?” ³ 

When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger ¹  to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, ²  “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.” ³ 

This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ¹  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

The Philistines asked, ¹  “Who did this?” They were told, ²  “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because the Timnite ³  took Samson’s ⁴  bride and gave her to his best man.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. ⁵ 

Her mother-in-law asked her, ¹  “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” ²  So Ruth ³  told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

So they assembled ¹  all the leaders of the Philistines and asked, “What should we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They replied, “The ark of the God of Israel should be moved to Gath.” So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.

David asked the men who were standing near him, “What will be done for the man who strikes down this Philistine and frees Israel from this humiliation? ¹  For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he defies the armies of the living God?”

¹ Now as Saul watched David going out to fight the Philistine, he asked Abner, the general in command of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.”

When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, “Praised be the Lord who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal! ¹  The Lord has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.” ²  Then David sent word to Abigail and asked her to become his wife.

The leaders of the Philistines asked, “What about these Hebrews?” Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, “Isn’t this David, the servant of King Saul of Israel, who has been with me for quite some time? ¹  I have found no fault with him from the day of his defection until the present time!” ² 

Then David approached the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go with him, ¹  those whom they had left at the Wadi Besor. They went out to meet David and the people who were with him. When David approached the people, he asked how they were doing.

The king asked, “Is there not someone left from Saul’s family, ¹  that I may extend God’s kindness to him?” Ziba said to the king, “One of Jonathan’s sons is left; both of his feet are crippled.”

The king asked Ziba, “Why did you bring these things?” ¹  Ziba replied, “The donkeys are for the king’s family to ride on, the loaves of bread ²  and the summer fruit are for the attendants to eat, and the wine is for those who get exhausted in the desert.” ³