Instead of bronze, I will bring you gold, instead of iron, I will bring you silver, instead of wood, I will bring you ¹  bronze, instead of stones, I will bring you ²  iron. I will make prosperity ³  your overseer, and vindication your sovereign ruler. ⁴ 

“You, son of man, mark out two routes for the king of Babylon’s sword to take; both of them will originate in a single land. Make a signpost and put it at the beginning of the road leading to the city.

then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, ¹  and assign him a place with the unfaithful. ² 

The Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will cut off Jeroboam’s dynasty. ¹  It is ready to happen! ² 

you appoint them to rule over your creation; ¹  you have placed ²  everything under their authority, ³ 

You make it dark and night comes, ¹  during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.

I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ²  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ³  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁴ 

If it is a matter of strength, ¹  most certainly ²  he is the strong one! And if it is a matter of justice, he will say, ‘Who will summon me?’ ³ 

I will send men against it to destroy it ¹  with their axes and hatchets. They will hack up its fine cedar panels and columns and throw them into the fire.

I will set one shepherd over them, and he will feed them – namely, my servant David. ¹  He will feed them and will be their shepherd.

So Daniel went in and ¹  requested the king to grant him time, that he might disclose the interpretation to the king.

Do not lay hands on anyone ¹  hastily and so identify with the sins of others. ²  Keep yourself pure.

So now order some cedars of Lebanon to be cut for me. My servants will work with your servants. I will pay your servants whatever you say is appropriate, for you know that we have no one among us who knows how to cut down trees like the Sidonians.”

My servants will bring the timber down from Lebanon to the sea. I will send it by sea in raft-like bundles to the place you designate. ¹  There I will separate the logs ²  and you can carry them away. In exchange you will supply the food I need for my royal court.” ³ 

Into his right hand ¹  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ²  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ³  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.

You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands. ¹  Only I, the king, will be greater than you. ² 

In the day he divides his inheritance ¹  he must not appoint as firstborn the son of the favorite wife in place of the other ²  wife’s son who is actually the firstborn.

The Lord will force you and your king ¹  whom you will appoint over you to go away to a people whom you and your ancestors have not known, and you will serve other gods of wood and stone there.

Pick three men from each tribe. I will send them out to walk through the land and make a map of it for me. ¹ 

Absalom would then say, “If only they would make me ¹  a judge in the land! Then everyone who had a judicial complaint ²  could come to me and I would make sure he receives a just settlement.”