Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made – they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me.

But I will certainly ¹  hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they ²  will have done by turning to other gods.

Then the Lord himself ¹  turned to him and said, “You have the strength. ²  Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! ³  Have I not sent you?”

The Danites went on their way; when Micah realized ¹  they were too strong to resist, ²  he turned around and went home.

The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master ¹  was staying until it became light. ² 

But when the signal, a pillar of smoke, began to rise up from the city, the Benjaminites turned around and saw the whole city going up in a cloud of smoke that rose high into the sky. ¹ 

They retreated before the Israelites, taking the road to the wilderness. But the battle overtook ¹  them as men from the surrounding cities struck them down. ² 

Six hundred survivors turned and ran away to the wilderness, to the cliff of Rimmon. They stayed there four months.

As Saul ¹  turned ²  to leave Samuel, God changed his inmost person. ³  All these signs happened on that very day.

Raiding bands went out from the camp of the Philistines in three groups. One band turned toward the road leading to Ophrah by the land of Shual;

But respond favorably to ¹  your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer ²  the desperate prayer ³  your servant is presenting to you ⁴  today.

When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. ¹  Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.

The rivers of Damascus, the Abana and Pharpar, are better than any of the waters of Israel! ¹  Could I not wash in them and be healed?” So he turned around and went away angry.

But respond favorably to ¹  your servant’s prayer and his request for help, O Lord my God. Answer ²  the desperate prayer ³  your servant is presenting to you. ⁴ 

When the men of Judah ¹  arrived at the observation post overlooking the desert and looked at ²  the huge army, they saw dead bodies on the ground; there were no survivors!

How blessed ¹  is the one ²  who trusts in the Lord ³  and does not seek help from ⁴  the proud or from liars! ⁵ 

Yet when I reflected on everything I had accomplished ¹  and on all the effort that I had expended to accomplish it, ²  I concluded: ³  “All these ⁴  achievements and possessions ⁵  are ultimately ⁶  profitless ⁷  – like chasing the wind! There is nothing gained ⁸  from them ⁹  on earth.”

Next, I decided to consider ¹  wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. ²  For what more can the king’s successor do than what the king ³  has already done?

They will pass through the land ¹  destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, ²  and they will curse their king and their God ³  as they look upward.

Like a frightened gazelle ¹  or a sheep with no shepherd, each will turn toward home, ²  each will run to his homeland.