Now there was a steep cliff on each side of the pass through which Jonathan intended to go to reach the Philistine garrison. One cliff was named Bozez, the other Seneh.

So Jonathan told David, “My father Saul is trying ¹  to kill you. So be careful tomorrow morning. Find ²  a hiding place and stay in seclusion. ³ 

If he should then say, ‘That’s fine,’ ¹  then your servant is safe. But if he becomes very angry, be assured that he has decided to harm me. ² 

Jonathan said, “Far be it from you to suggest this! If I were at all aware that my father had decided to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you about it?”

Then Abner spoke privately ¹  with the Benjaminites. Abner also went to Hebron to inform David privately ²  of all that Israel and the entire house of Benjamin had agreed to. ³ 

Sanballat and Geshem sent word to me saying, “Come on! Let’s set up a time to meet together at Kephirim ¹  in the plain of Ono.” Now they intended to do me harm.

For this reason my stomach churns; ¹  cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed ²  by what I hear, horrified by what I see.

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ¹  If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.” ² 

The inhabitants of one will go to another and say, “Let’s go up at once to ask the favor of the Lord, to seek the Lord who rules over all. Indeed, I’ll go with you.”’

The chief priests and the experts in the law ¹  heard it and they considered how they could assassinate ²  him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching.

Then the Jewish leaders ¹  said to one another, “Where is he ²  going to go that we cannot find him? ³  He is not going to go to the Jewish people dispersed ⁴  among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? ⁵ 

I no longer call you slaves, ¹  because the slave does not understand ²  what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything ³  I heard ⁴  from my Father.

When he had seized him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads ¹  of soldiers to guard him. Herod ²  planned ³  to bring him out for public trial ⁴  after the Passover.

Some of the crowd concluded ¹  it was about ²  Alexander because the Jews had pushed him to the front. ³  Alexander, gesturing ⁴  with his hand, was wanting to make a defense ⁵  before the public assembly. ⁶ 

For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you ¹  about our common salvation, I now feel compelled ²  instead to write to encourage ³  you to contend earnestly ⁴  for the faith ⁵  that was once for all ⁶  entrusted to the saints. ⁷ 

Reuben continued, ¹  “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” ²  (Reuben said this ³  so he could rescue Joseph ⁴  from them ⁵  and take him back to his father.)

When it was reported ¹  to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, ²  the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his servants said, ³  “What in the world have we done? ⁴  For we have released the people of Israel ⁵  from serving us!”

Why ¹  should the Egyptians say, ²  ‘For evil ³  he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy ⁴  them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent ⁵  of this evil against your people.

But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. ¹  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”