Listen to what the Lord says: “Get up! Defend yourself ¹  before the mountains! ²  Present your case before the hills!” ³ 

Here then is what the Lord who rules over all says: ‘Think carefully about what you are doing. ¹ 

Thus I will strengthen them by my power, ¹  and they will walk about ²  in my name,” says the Lord.

Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord. ‘Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and ¹  all you citizens of the land,’ ²  says the Lord, ‘and begin to work. For I am with you,’ says the Lord who rules over all.

On that day,’ ¹  says the Lord who rules over all, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant,’ ²  says the Lord, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, ³  for I have chosen you,’ says the Lord who rules over all.” ⁴ 

He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

So the slave masters of the people and their foremen went to the Israelites and said, ¹  “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I am not giving ²  you straw.

“When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Do ¹  a miracle,’ and you say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down ²  before Pharaoh,’ it will become ³  a snake.”

(7:26) ¹  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Release my people in order that they may serve me!

Say to them, ‘As I live, ¹  says ²  the Lord, I will surely do to you just what you have spoken in my hearing. ³ 

¹ Moses ²  sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: ³  “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardships we have experienced, ⁴ 

And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak son of Zippor: ‘Please do not let anything hinder you from coming ¹  to me.

but your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, to do battle in the Lord’s presence, just as my lord says.”

However, if the servant ¹  says to you, “I do not want to leave ²  you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you,

and said to him, “This is what Jephthah says, ‘Israel did not steal ¹  the land of Moab and the land of the Ammonites.

Then Samuel said to Saul, “I was the one the Lord sent to anoint you as king over his people Israel. Now listen to what the Lord says. ¹ 

Here is what the Lord of hosts says: ‘I carefully observed how the Amalekites opposed ¹  Israel along the way when Israel ²  came up from Egypt.

It’s like the old proverb says: ‘From evil people evil proceeds.’ But my hand will not be against you.

“Go, tell my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord says: Do you really intend to build a house for me to live in?

Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: “I raised you up ¹  from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel.