Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked – the God who has been my shepherd ¹  all my life long to this day,

At the commandment of the Lord they camped, and at the commandment of the Lord they traveled on; they kept the instructions of the Lord according to the commandment of the Lord, by the authority ¹  of Moses.

The Lord handed Lachish over to Israel and they ¹  captured it on the second day. They put the sword to all who lived there, just as they had done to Libnah.

That day they captured it and put the sword to all who lived there. That day they ¹  annihilated it just as they ²  had done to Lachish.

That day Moses made this solemn promise: ¹  ‘Surely the land on which you walked ²  will belong to you and your descendants permanently, ³  for you remained loyal to the Lord your God.’

So Joshua summoned all Israel, including the elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and told them: “I am very old.

I gave you a land in ¹  which you had not worked hard; you took up residence in cities you did not build and you are eating the produce of ²  vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’

Now ¹  obey ²  the Lord and worship ³  him with integrity and loyalty. Put aside the gods your ancestors ⁴  worshiped ⁵  beyond the Euphrates ⁶  and in Egypt and worship ⁷  the Lord.

The men of Judah went with their brothers the men of Simeon ¹  and defeated the Canaanites living in Zephath. They wiped out Zephath. ²  So people now call the city Hormah. ³ 

Now Heber the Kenite had moved away ¹  from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law. He lived ²  near the great tree in Zaanannim near Kedesh.

They ruthlessly oppressed ¹  the Israelites that eighteenth year ²  – that is, all the Israelites living east of the Jordan in Amorite country in Gilead.

After they had gone a good distance from Micah’s house, Micah’s neighbors ¹  gathered together and caught up with the Danites.

In those days Israel had no king. There was a Levite ¹  living temporarily in the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. He acquired a concubine ²  from Bethlehem ³  in Judah.

But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. ¹  The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.) ² 

That day the Benjaminites mustered from their cities twenty-six thousand sword-wielding soldiers, besides seven hundred well-trained soldiers from Gibeah. ¹ 

They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins – they had never had sexual relations with a male. ¹  They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

Now David had run away and escaped. He went to Samuel in Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.

But the king said, “Let him go over ¹  to his own house. He may not see my face.” So Absalom went over ²  to his own house; he did not see the king’s face.

While he was offering sacrifices, Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s adviser, ¹  to come from his city, Giloh. ²  The conspiracy was gaining momentum, and the people were starting to side with Absalom.

and said ¹  this: ‘The Lord God of Israel is worthy of praise because ²  today he has placed a successor on my throne and allowed me to see it.’” ³