Now ¹  three days after Festus ²  arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem ³  from Caesarea. ⁴ 

“These men are at peace with us. So let them live in the land and travel freely in it, for the land is wide enough ¹  for them. We will take their daughters for wives, and we will give them our daughters to marry. ² 

These are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the Israelites defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal Gad in the Lebanon Valley to Mount Halak on up to Seir. Joshua assigned this territory to the Israelite tribes, ¹ 

All the people throughout all the tribes of Israel were arguing among themselves saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. He rescued us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

He built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns, for he owned many herds in the lowlands ¹  and on the plain. He had workers in the fields and vineyards in the hills and in Carmel, ²  for he loved agriculture. ³ 

Throughout every province and throughout every city where the king’s edict and his law arrived, the Jews experienced happiness and joy, banquets and holidays. Many of the resident peoples ¹  pretended ²  to be Jews, because the fear of the Jews had overcome them. ³ 

This is why the Jews who are in the rural country – those who live in rural cities – set aside the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a holiday for happiness, banqueting, holiday, and sending gifts to one another.

If I go out into the countryside, I see those who have been killed in battle. If I go into the city, I see those who are sick because of starvation. ¹  For both prophet and priest go about their own business in the land without having any real understanding.’” ² 

“Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. ¹  They will be like an overflowing stream. They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood. They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants. People will cry out in alarm. Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.

I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt ¹  against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

When the people ¹  moved eastward, ²  they found a plain in Shinar ³  and settled there.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree ¹  of Moreh ²  at Shechem. ³  (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ⁴ 

So Abram went up from Egypt into the Negev. ¹  He took his wife and all his possessions with him, as well as Lot. ² 

“I am a temporary settler ¹  among you. Grant ²  me ownership ³  of a burial site among you so that I may ⁴  bury my dead.” ⁵ 

He ¹  went out to relax ²  in the field in the early evening. ³  Then he looked up ⁴  and saw that ⁵  there were camels approaching.

Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me? You hate me ¹  and sent me away from you.”

Hasn’t he treated us like foreigners? He not only sold us, but completely wasted ¹  the money paid for us! ² 

(32:1) ¹  Early in the morning Laban kissed ²  his grandchildren ³  and his daughters goodbye and blessed them. Then Laban left and returned home. ⁴ 

People from every country ¹  came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.

When she bore ¹  a son, Moses ²  named him Gershom, for he said, “I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land.” ³