So now, O Lord God, make this promise you have made about your servant and his family a permanent reality. ¹  Do as you promised, ² 

So they informed David, “Uriah has not gone down to his house.” So David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey? Why haven’t you gone down to your house?”

Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven ¹  your sin. You are not going to die.

So Joab went to the king and informed him. The king ¹  summoned Absalom, and he came to the king. Absalom ²  bowed down before the king with his face toward the ground and the king kissed him. ³ 

Hiram also made basins, shovels, and bowls. He ¹  finished all the work on the Lord’s temple he had been assigned by King Solomon. ² 

Now Elisha had a terminal illness. ¹  King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. ²  He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot ³  and horsemen of Israel!” ⁴ 

‘Look, a time is ¹  coming when everything in your palace and the things your ancestors have accumulated to this day will be carried away to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

I will abandon this last remaining tribe among my people ¹  and hand them over to their enemies; they will be plundered and robbed by all their enemies, ² 

Zedekiah’s sons were executed while Zedekiah was forced to watch. ¹  The king of Babylon ²  then had Zedekiah’s eyes put out, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him off to Babylon.

Huram Abi ¹  made the pots, shovels, and bowls. He finished all the work on God’s temple he had been assigned by King Solomon. ² 

From the time Amaziah turned from following the Lord, conspirators plotted against him in Jerusalem, ¹  so he fled to Lachish. But they sent assassins after him ²  and they killed him there.

The priests and Levites got up and pronounced blessings on the people. The Lord responded favorably to them ¹  as their prayers reached his holy dwelling place in heaven.

The Lord delivered Hezekiah and the residents of Jerusalem from the power of King Sennacherib of Assyria and from all the other nations. ¹  He made them secure on every side. ² 

The priests and the Levites had purified themselves, every last one, ¹  and they all were ceremonially pure. They sacrificed the Passover lamb for all the exiles, for their colleagues ²  the priests, and for themselves.

O Lord God of Israel, you are righteous, for we are left as a remnant this day. Indeed, we stand before you in our guilt. However, because of this guilt ¹  no one can really stand before you.”

Nehemiah son of Azbuk, head of a half-district of Beth Zur, worked after him as far as the tombs of David and the artificial pool and the House of the Warriors.

But I warned them and said, ¹  “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” ²  From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. ³ 

Memucan then replied to the king and the officials, “The wrong of Queen Vashti is not against the king alone, but against all the officials and all the people who are throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus.

But may all who take shelter ¹  in you be happy! ²  May they continually ³  shout for joy! ⁴  Shelter them ⁵  so that those who are loyal to you ⁶  may rejoice! ⁷ 

For the music director; according to the sheminith style; ²  a psalm of David. Deliver, Lord! For the godly ³  have disappeared; ⁴  people of integrity ⁵  have vanished. ⁶