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.

You take olive oil as tribute ¹  to your king, ²  along with many perfumes. ³  You send your messengers to a distant place; you go all the way to Sheol. ⁴ 

I made you plentiful like sprouts in a field; you grew tall and came of age so that you could wear jewelry. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, but you were still naked and bare.

May mercy, peace, and love be lavished on you! ¹ 

So God treated the midwives well, ¹  and the people multiplied and became very strong.

The Lord your God has increased your population ¹  to the point that you are now as numerous as the very stars of the sky. ² 

You sold ¹  your people for a pittance; ²  you did not ask a high price for them. ³ 

He blessed ¹  them so that they became very numerous. He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number. ² 

When ¹  I cried out for help, you answered me. You made me bold and energized me. ² 

While the battle raged throughout the day, the king stood propped up in his chariot opposite the Syrians. He died in the evening as the sun was setting.

I thought to myself, ¹  “I have become much wiser ²  than any of my predecessors who ruled ³  over Jerusalem; ⁴  I ⁵  have acquired much wisdom and knowledge.” ⁶ 

Their widows will become in my sight more numerous ¹  than the grains of sand on the seashores. At noontime I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men. ²  I will cause anguish ³  and terror to fall suddenly upon them. ⁴ 

Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and allow your daughters get married so that they too can have sons and daughters. Grow in number; do not dwindle away.

it is you, ¹  O king! For you have become great and strong. Your greatness is such that it reaches to heaven, and your authority to the ends of the earth.

“But you, Daniel, close up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will dash about, ¹  and knowledge will increase.”

Then ¹  the church throughout Judea, Galilee, ²  and Samaria experienced ³  peace and thus was strengthened. ⁴  Living ⁵  in the fear of the Lord and in the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, the church ⁶  increased in numbers.

Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they owned land there. They were fruitful and increased rapidly in number.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have behaved in an unfaithful manner by taking foreign wives! This has contributed to the guilt of Israel.

You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your sexually aroused neighbors, ¹  multiplying your promiscuity and provoking me to anger.

Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches grew long, because of the plentiful water in its shoots. ¹