“The Lord will allow you to be struck down before your enemies; you will attack them from one direction but flee from them in seven directions and will become an object of terror ¹  to all the kingdoms of the earth.

I sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt down when I intervened in their land. ¹  Then I brought you out.

Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat ¹  and lure them ²  away from the city into the main roads.”

Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated. The Israelites retreated before ¹  Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.

The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹  Israel. As the battle spread out, ²  Israel was defeated by ³  the Philistines, who ⁴  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. ¹  The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

David went on to say, “As the Lord lives, the Lord himself will strike him down. Either his day will come and he will die, or he will go down into battle and be swept away.

Now the battle was very severe that day; Abner and the men of Israel were overcome by David’s soldiers. ¹ 

Then Nathan went to his home. The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and the child became very ill. ¹ 

The army of Israel was defeated there by David’s men. ¹  The slaughter there was great that day – 20,000 soldiers were killed.

“The time will come when ¹  your people Israel are defeated by an enemy ²  because they sinned against you. If they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you, ³  and pray for your help ⁴  in this temple,

“If your people Israel are defeated by an enemy ¹  because they sinned against you, then if they come back to you, renew their allegiance to you, ²  and pray for your help ³  before you in this temple,

and the men of Judah gave ¹  the battle cry. As the men of Judah gave the battle cry, the Lord struck down Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

When they began to shout and praise, the Lord suddenly attacked ¹  the Ammonites, Moabites, and men from Mount Seir ²  who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.

Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. ¹  Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. ²  Do it before you stumble ³  into distress like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. ⁴  Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for into the darkness and gloom of exile. ⁵ 

then you will say, ‘It is the sacrifice ¹  of the Lord’s Passover, when he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, when he struck ²  Egypt and delivered our households.’” The people bowed down low ³  to the ground,

“If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, ¹  but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. ² 

If the ox of one man injures the ox of his neighbor so that it dies, then they will sell the live ox and divide its proceeds, ¹  and they will also divide the dead ox. ² 

The Lord annihilated Benjamin before Israel; the Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites. ¹ 

When the army ¹  came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by ²  the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us ³  from the hand of our enemies.