and took off after the prophet, ¹  whom he found sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the prophet ²  from Judah?” He answered, “Yes, I am.”

Then he called out to the Lord, “O Lord, my God, are you also bringing disaster on this widow I am staying with by killing her son?”

Elijah said to them: ¹  “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but there are 450 prophets of Baal.

The king said to him, “How many times must I make you solemnly promise in ¹  the name of the Lord to tell me only the truth?”

I will become his father and he will become my son. I will never withhold my loyal love from him, as I withheld it from the one who ruled before you. ¹ 

David went in, sat before the Lord, and said: “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, ¹  that you should have brought me to this point?

“Go, tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am offering you three forms of judgment from which to choose. Pick one of them.”’” ¹ 

David said to Solomon: “My son, I really wanted ¹  to build a temple to honor ²  the Lord my God.

“But who am I and who are my people, that we should be in a position to contribute this much? ¹  Indeed, everything comes from you, and we have simply given back to you what is yours. ² 

The king said to him, “How many times must I make you solemnly promise in ¹  the name of the Lord to tell me only the truth?”

Are you not aware of what I and my predecessors ¹  have done to all the nations of the surrounding lands? Have the gods of the surrounding lands actually been able to rescue their lands from my power? ² 

Please recall the word you commanded your servant Moses: ‘If you act unfaithfully, I will scatter you among the nations. ¹ 

We did not change clothes ¹  – not I, nor my relatives, nor my workers, nor the watchmen who were with me. Each had his weapon, even when getting a drink of water. ² 

Even I and my relatives ¹  and my associates ²  are lending them money and grain. But let us abandon this practice of seizing collateral! ³ 

So I sent messengers to them saying, “I am engaged in ¹  an important work, and I am unable to come down. Why should the work come to a halt when I leave it to come down to you?”

Yet all of this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

For we have been sold ¹  – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”

and the Sabeans ¹  swooped down ²  and carried them all away, and they killed ³  the servants with the sword! ⁴  And I – only I alone ⁵  – escaped to tell you!”

So Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite spoke up: ¹  “I am young, ²  but you are elderly; that is why I was fearful, ³  and afraid to explain ⁴  to you what I know.

Even when an army is deployed against me, I do not fear. ¹  Even when war is imminent, ²  I remain confident. ³