(though the father did not do any of them). ¹  He eats pagan sacrifices on the mountains, ²  defiles his neighbor’s wife,

She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her. ¹ 

For her blood was in it; she poured it on an exposed rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.

I have given him the land of Egypt as his compensation for attacking Tyre ¹ , because they did it for me, declares the sovereign Lord.

I ate no choice food; no meat or wine came to my lips, ¹  nor did I anoint myself with oil ²  until the end of those three weeks.

I listened to his voice, ¹  and as I did so ²  I fell into a trance-like sleep with my face to the ground.

At an appointed time he will again invade the south, but this latter visit will not turn out the way the former one did.

What he will honor is a god of fortresses – a god his fathers did not acknowledge he will honor with gold, silver, valuable stones, and treasured commodities.

Very soon they will say, “We have no king since we did not fear the Lord. But what can a king do for us anyway?”

O Israel, you have sinned since the time ¹  of Gibeah, and there you have remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?

Yet it was I who led ¹  Ephraim, I took them by the arm; but they did not acknowledge that I had healed them. ² 

People from ¹  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ²  water, but remained thirsty. ³  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

You did not bring me ¹  sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family ²  of Israel.

But they did not obey ¹  their leaders. Instead they prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped ²  them. They quickly turned aside from the path ³  their ancestors ⁴  had walked. Their ancestors had obeyed the Lord’s commands, but they did not. ⁵ 

The Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight. ¹  They worshiped ²  the Baals and the Ashtars, ³  as well as the gods of Syria, Sidon, ⁴  Moab, the Ammonites, and the Philistines. ⁵  They abandoned the Lord and did not worship ⁶  him.

The woman went and said to her husband, “A man sent from God ¹  came to me! He looked like God’s angelic messenger – he was very awesome. ²  I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.

Her mother-in-law asked her, ¹  “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” ²  So Ruth ³  told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

So Saul ¹  crossed through the hill country of Ephraim, passing through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. So they crossed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then he crossed through the land of Benjamin, and still they did not find them.

You must obey ¹  all I command you to do, follow my instructions, ²  do what I approve, ³  and keep my rules and commandments, like my servant David did. Then I will be with you and establish for you a lasting dynasty, as I did for David; ⁴  I will give you Israel.

Then he said, “Fill four water jars and pour the water on the offering and the wood.” When they had done so, ¹  he said, “Do it again.” So they did it again. Then he said, “Do it a third time.” So they did it a third time.