¹ When the Canaanite king of Arad ²  who lived in the Negev ³  heard that Israel was approaching along the road to Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner.

So we have brought as an offering for the Lord what each man found: gold ornaments, armlets, bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and necklaces, to make atonement for ourselves ¹  before the Lord.” ² 

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, ¹  and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, ²  will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh – the blood of the slaughtered and captured, the chief ¹  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho ¹  and its king, except you may plunder its goods and cattle. Set an ambush behind the city!”

The Israelites plundered all the goods of these cities and the cattle, but they totally destroyed all the people ¹  and allowed no one who breathed to live.

saying, “Take home ¹  great wealth, a lot of cattle, ²  silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a lot of ³  clothing. Divide up the goods captured from your enemies with your brothers.”

‘No doubt they are gathering and dividing the plunder ¹  – a girl or two for each man to rape! ²  Sisera is grabbing up colorful cloth, ³  he is grabbing up colorful embroidered cloth, ⁴  two pieces of colorful embroidered cloth, for the neck of the plunderer!’ ⁵ 

Samson went and captured three hundred jackals ¹  and got some torches. He tied the jackals in pairs by their tails and then tied a torch to each pair. ² 

They took captive the women who were in it, from the youngest to the oldest, but they did not kill anyone. They simply carried them off and went on their way.

He ¹  won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. Then they sent word to the king saying, “Return, you and all your servants as well.”

When Zimri saw that the city was captured, he went into the fortified area of the royal palace. He set the palace on fire and died in the flames. ¹ 

(At that time King Rezin of Syria ¹  recovered Elat for Syria; he drove the Judahites from there. ²  Syrians ³  arrived in Elat and live there to this very day.)

“Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over ¹  to the king of Assyria.”

Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the land of Hamath and prevented him from ruling in Jerusalem. ¹  He imposed on the land a special tax ²  of one hundred talents ³  of silver and a talent of gold.

The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

“Tell King Hezekiah of Judah this: ‘Don’t let your God in whom you trust mislead you when he says, “Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.”

For the Lord says, “I will now throw out those who live in this land. I will bring so much trouble on them that they will actually feel it.” ¹ 

For I, the Lord, say that ¹  I am determined not to deliver this city but to bring disaster on it. ²  It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will destroy it with fire.’” ³ 

King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape from the Babylonians. ¹  He will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon. He must answer personally to the king of Babylon and confront him face to face. ²