For he has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He wrote and told us, ¹  “You will be there a long time. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.”’” ² 

מ (Mem) He sent down fire ¹  into my bones, and it overcame ²  them. He spread out a trapper’s net ³  for my feet; he made me turn back. He has made me desolate; I am faint all day long.

The vision ¹  that Obadiah ²  saw. ³  The Lord God ⁴  says this concerning ⁵  Edom: ⁶ We have heard a report from the Lord. An envoy was sent among the nations, saying, ⁷  “Arise! Let us make war against Edom!” ⁸ 

“I hate divorce,” ¹  says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” ²  says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”

Look, I will send you Elijah ¹  the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord arrives.

They replied, ¹  “A man came up to meet us. He told us, “Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are sending for an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. ²  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.”’”

But when they related to him everything Joseph had said to them, ¹  and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, their father Jacob’s spirit revived.

Then Jacob started out ¹  from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him.

¹ The Lord ²  said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and position yourself before Pharaoh as he goes out to the water, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Release my people that they may serve me!

Moses said, “I am going to go out ¹  from you and pray to the Lord, and the swarms of flies will go away from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. Only do not let Pharaoh deal falsely again ²  by not releasing ³  the people to sacrifice to the Lord.”

¹ The Lord said ²  to Moses, “Get up early in the morning, stand ³  before Pharaoh, and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: “Release my people so that they may serve me!

For this time I will send all my plagues ¹  on your very self ²  and on your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.

So now, send instructions ¹  to gather ²  your livestock and all your possessions in the fields to a safe place. Every person ³  or animal caught ⁴  in the field and not brought into the house – the hail will come down on them, and they will die!”’”

So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and told him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: ‘How long do you refuse ¹  to humble yourself before me? ²  Release my people so that they may serve me!

Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long ¹  will this man be a menace ²  to us? Release the people so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not know ³  that Egypt is destroyed?”

So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not release the Israelites from his land.

“Send out men to investigate ¹  the land of Canaan, which I am giving ²  to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, ³  each one a leader among them.”

Yet Joshua spared ¹  Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, ²  and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel ³  to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. ⁴ 

The men ¹  who were chosen ²  took supplies ³  and their trumpets. Gideon ⁴  sent all the men of Israel back to their homes; ⁵  he kept only three hundred men. Now the Midianites ⁶  were camped down below ⁷  in the valley.

Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please allow us ¹  to pass through your land.” But the king of Edom rejected the request. ²  Israel sent the same request to the king of Moab, but he was unwilling to cooperate. ³  So Israel stayed at Kadesh.