The one who builds a city by bloodshed is as good as dead ¹  – he who starts ²  a town by unjust deeds.

Anyone who accidentally kills someone can escape there; ¹  these cities will be a place of asylum from the avenger of blood.

So they selected ¹  Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.

These are the gold sores that the Philistines brought as a guilt offering to the Lord – one for each of the following cities: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.

(Geshur and Aram captured the towns of Jair, ¹  along with Kenath and its sixty surrounding towns.) All these were descendants of Makir, the father of Gilead.

May there be ¹  an abundance ²  of grain in the earth; on the tops ³  of the mountains may it ⁴  sway! ⁵  May its ⁶  fruit trees ⁷  flourish ⁸  like the forests of Lebanon! ⁹  May its crops be as abundant as the grass of the earth!

Wail, O city gate! Cry out, O city! Melt with fear, ¹  all you Philistines! For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke, and there are no stragglers in its ranks. ² 

The people of ¹  Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard as far away as Jahaz. For this reason Moab’s soldiers shout in distress; their courage wavers. ² 

Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim, and Damascus will lose its kingdom. ¹  The survivors in Syria will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,” says the Lord who commands armies.

Indeed, ¹  you have made the city ²  into a heap of rubble, the fortified town into a heap of ruins; the fortress of foreigners ³  is no longer a city, it will never be rebuilt.

Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; ¹  you will reestablish the ancient foundations. You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls, the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ ² 

the foreigners living in Egypt; ¹  all the kings of the land of Uz; ²  all the kings of the land of the Philistines, ³  the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod; ⁴ 

The primary regions ¹  of his kingdom were Babel, ²  Erech, ³  Akkad, ⁴  and Calneh ⁵  in the land of Shinar. ⁶ 

So the Lord said, “The outcry against ¹  Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant ² 

He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtower to the city fortress. ¹ 

Within the territory of the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead and its pasturelands, Mahanaim and its pasturelands,

He fortified these cities and placed officers in them, as well as storehouses of food, olive oil, and wine.

Zion hears and rejoices, the towns ¹  of Judah are happy, because of your judgments, O Lord.

I will restore Judah and Israel ¹  and will rebuild them as they were in days of old. ² 

It will be a day for rebuilding your walls; in that day your boundary will be extended. ¹