I will remove ¹  the ruler ²  from Ashdod, ³  the one who holds the royal scepter from Ashkelon. ⁴  I will strike Ekron ⁵  with my hand; ⁶  the rest of the Philistines will also die.” ⁷  The sovereign Lord has spoken!

This is what the Lord says: “Because Tyre has committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They sold ⁴  a whole community ⁵  to Edom; they failed to observe ⁶  a treaty of brotherhood. ⁷ 

“But surely I gave ¹  you no food to eat in any of your cities; you lacked food everywhere you live. ²  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

I will bring back my people, Israel; ¹  they will rebuild the cities lying in rubble ²  and settle down. ³  They will plant vineyards and drink the wine they produce; ⁴  they will grow orchards ⁵  and eat the fruit they produce. ⁶ 

Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love; ¹  shave your foreheads as bald ²  as an eagle, ³  for they are taken from you into exile.

“I destroyed ¹  nations; their walled cities ²  are in ruins. I turned their streets into ruins; no one passes through them. Their cities are desolate; ³  no one lives there. ⁴ 

An oracle of the word of the Lord concerning the land of Hadrach, ¹  with its focus on Damascus: ²  The eyes of all humanity, ³  especially of the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord,

When evening arrived, his disciples came to him saying, “This is an isolated place ¹  and the hour is already late. Send the crowds away so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

After this ¹  the Lord appointed seventy-two ²  others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town ³  and place where he himself was about to go.

The ¹  great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations ²  collapsed. ³  So ⁴  Babylon the great was remembered before God, and was given the cup ⁵  filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath. ⁶ 

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it ¹  you shall not do any work, you, ²  or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. ³ 

Suppose he goes with someone else ¹  to the forest to cut wood and when he raises the ax ²  to cut the tree, the ax head flies loose ³  from the handle and strikes ⁴  his fellow worker ⁵  so hard that he dies. The person responsible ⁶  may then flee to one of these cities to save himself. ⁷ 

and then you are careful to observe all these commandments ¹  I am giving ²  you today (namely, to love the Lord your God and to always walk in his ways), then you must add three more cities ³  to these three.

Now, assign me this hill country which the Lord promised me at that time! No doubt you heard at that time that the Anakites live there in large, fortified cities. ¹  But, assuming the Lord is with me, I will conquer ²  them, as the Lord promised.”

It then turned on the west side southward from the hill near Beth Horon on the south and extended to Kiriath Baal (that is, Kiriath Jearim), a city belonging to the tribe ¹  of Judah. This is the western border. ² 

These were the cities of refuge ¹  appointed for all the Israelites and for resident foreigners living among them. Anyone who accidentally killed someone could escape there and not be executed by ²  the avenger of blood, at least until his case was reviewed by the assembly. ³ 

The Danites sent out from their whole tribe five representatives, ¹  capable men ²  from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.” They came to the Ephraimite hill country and spent the night at Micah’s house. ³ 

Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure ¹  fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”

The rest of the events of Asa’s reign, including all his successes and accomplishments, as well as a record of the cities he built, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ¹  Yet when he was very old he developed a foot disease. ² 

Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, my master?” He replied, “Because I know the trouble you will cause the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, smash their children to bits, and rip open their pregnant women.”