Then you responded to me and admitted, “We have sinned against the Lord. We will now go up and fight as the Lord our God has told us to do.” So you each put on your battle gear and prepared to go up to the hill country.

When we invade the land ¹ , tie this red rope ²  in the window through which you let us down, and gather together in your house your father, mother, brothers, and all who live in your father’s house. ³ 

Anyone who leaves your house will be responsible for his own death – we are innocent in that case! ¹  But if anyone with you in the house is harmed, we will be responsible. ² 

Our leaders and all who live in our land told us, ‘Take provisions for your journey and go meet them. Tell them, “We are willing to be your subjects. ¹  Make a treaty with us.”’

Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerub-Baal, and is not Zebul the deputy he appointed? ¹  Serve the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem! But why should we serve Abimelech? ² 

The rulers of the Philistines went up to visit her and said to her, “Trick him! Find out what makes him so strong and how we can subdue him and humiliate ¹  him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver pieces.”

The Levite ¹  said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem ²  in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home. ³  But no one has invited me into their home.

Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn together in the name of the Lord saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’”(21:1) ¹ Then David ²  got up and left, while Jonathan went back to the city.

So the palace supervisor, ¹  the city commissioner, ²  the leaders, ³  and the guardians sent this message to Jehu, “We are your subjects! ⁴  Whatever you say, we will do. We will not make anyone king. Do what you consider proper.” ⁵ 

Jehu encountered ¹  the relatives ²  of King Ahaziah of Judah. He asked, “Who are you?” They replied, “We are Ahaziah’s relatives. We have come down to see how ³  the king’s sons and the queen mother’s sons are doing.”

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, “Speak to your servants in Aramaic, ¹  for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Judahite dialect ²  in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

we will get all the timber you need from Lebanon ¹  and bring it ²  in raft-like bundles ³  by sea to Joppa. You can then haul it on up to Jerusalem.”

They offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord every morning and every evening, along with fragrant incense. They arrange the Bread of the Presence on a ritually clean table and light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. Certainly ¹  we are observing the Lord our God’s regulations, but you have rejected him.

Our God, will you not judge them? For we are powerless against this huge army that attacks us! We don’t know what we should do; we look to you for help.” ¹ 

they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ¹  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ²  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ³  from the time ⁴  of King Esarhaddon ⁵  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ⁶ 

But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the leaders of Israel said to them, “You have no right ¹  to help us build the temple of our God. We will build it by ourselves for the Lord God of Israel, just as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us.”

Although we are slaves, our God has not abandoned us in our servitude. He has extended kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, in that he has revived us ¹  to restore the temple of our God and to raise ²  up its ruins and to give us a protective wall in Judah and Jerusalem. ³ 

Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, from the descendants of Elam, ¹  addressed Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying ²  foreign women from the local peoples. ³  Nonetheless, there is still hope for Israel in this regard. ⁴ 

Then I said to them, “You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”

I responded to them by saying, “The God of heaven will prosper us. We his servants will start the rebuilding. ¹  But you have no just or ancient right in Jerusalem.” ²