Although it grieved the king, ¹  because of his oath and the dinner guests he commanded it to be given.

No one ¹  was able to answer him a word, and from that day on no one dared to question him any longer.

For ¹  a while he refused, but later on ²  he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor have regard for people, ³ 

After this ¹  Jesus traveled throughout Galilee. ²  He ³  stayed out of Judea ⁴  because the Jewish leaders ⁵  wanted ⁶  to kill him.

For I do not want to see you now in passing, since I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

Each one of you should give ¹  just as he has decided in his heart, ²  not reluctantly ³  or under compulsion, ⁴  because God loves a cheerful giver.

For even when we were with you, we used to give you this command: “If anyone is not willing to work, neither should he eat.”

The Lord will be unwilling to forgive him, and his intense anger ¹  will rage ²  against that man; all the curses ³  written in this scroll will fall upon him ⁴  and the Lord will obliterate his name from memory. ⁵ 

If you have no desire ¹  to worship ²  the Lord, choose today whom you will worship, ³  whether it be the gods whom your ancestors ⁴  worshiped ⁵  beyond the Euphrates, ⁶  or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But I and my family ⁷  will worship ⁸  the Lord!”

However, Saul and the army spared Agag, along with the best of the flock, the cattle, the fatlings, ¹  and the lambs, as well as everything else that was of value. ²  They were not willing to slaughter them. But they did slaughter everything that was despised ³  and worthless.

“When a traveler arrived at the rich man’s home, ¹  he did not want to use one of his own sheep or cattle to feed ²  the traveler who had come to visit him. ³  Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and cooked ⁴  it for the man who had come to visit him.”

But the Lord had mercy on them and felt pity for them. ¹  He extended his favor to them ²  because of the promise he had made ³  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day. ⁴ 

The servant asked him, “What if the woman is not willing to come back with me ¹  to this land? Must I then ²  take your son back to the land from which you came?”

But King Sihon of Heshbon was unwilling to allow us to pass near him because the Lord our ¹  God had made him obstinate ²  and stubborn ³  so that he might deliver him over to you ⁴  this very day.

But the man did not want to stay another night. He left ¹  and traveled as far as ²  Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). ³  He had with him a pair of saddled donkeys and his concubine. ⁴ 

But the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah. He preserved Judah for the sake of ¹  his servant David to whom he had promised a perpetual dynasty. ² 

But the Lord was unwilling to destroy David’s dynasty ¹  because of the promise ²  he had made to give David a perpetual dynasty. ³ 

But the house of Israel is unwilling to listen to you, ¹  because they are not willing to listen to me, ²  for the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ³ 

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, ¹  you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! ²  How often I have longed ³  to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but ⁴  you would have none of it! ⁵ 

The tax collector, however, stood ¹  far off and would not even look up ²  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ³  to me, sinner that I am!’ ⁴