For surely there is a future, ¹  and your hope will not be cut off. ² 

Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, those who are deaf, even though they have ears!

Indeed, there is hope for your posterity. ¹  Your children will return to their own territory. I, the Lord, affirm it! ² 

Here is ¹  another ²  enigma ³  that occurs on earth: Sometimes there are righteous people who get what the wicked deserve, ⁴  and sometimes there are wicked people who get what the righteous deserve. ⁵  I said, “This also is an enigma.”

When he left there, he met ¹  Jehonadab, son of Rekab, who had been looking for him. ²  Jehu greeted him and asked, ³  “Are you as committed to me as I am to you?” ⁴  Jehonadab answered, “I am!” Jehu replied, “If so, give me your hand.” ⁵  So he offered his hand and Jehu ⁶  pulled him up into the chariot.

Then Jacob woke up ¹  and thought, ²  “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!”

But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother. Keep what belongs to you.”

When Jacob heard ¹  there was grain in Egypt, he ²  said to his sons, “Why are you looking at each other?” ³ 

If you send ¹  our brother with us, we’ll go down and buy food for you.

My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father or a brother?’

Gideon said to God, “If you really intend to use me to deliver Israel, ¹  as you promised, then give me a sign as proof. ² 

Now yes, it is true that ¹  I am a guardian, ²  but there is another guardian who is a closer relative than I am.

Now what do you have at your disposal? ¹  Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found.”

But as for you, be strong and don’t get discouraged, ¹  for your work will be rewarded.” ² 

All these had taken foreign wives, and some of them also had children by these women. ¹ 

There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain ¹  grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

There were others who said, “We are putting up our fields, our vineyards, and our houses as collateral in order to obtain grain during the famine.”

Then there were those who said, “We have borrowed money to pay our taxes to the king ¹  on our fields and our vineyards.

Can food that is tasteless ¹  be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white ²  of an egg?

“But there is hope for ¹  a tree: ²  If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.