Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall and some of the king’s soldiers ¹  died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”

When Ben Hadad received this reply, ¹  he and the other kings were drinking in their quarters. ²  He ordered his servants, “Get ready to attack!” So they got ready to attack the city.

The next day Hazael ¹  took a piece of cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over Ben Hadad’s ²  face until he died. Then Hazael replaced him as king.

The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the Lord’s temple – including the two pillars, the big bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” ¹  and the movable stands – was too heavy to be weighed.

While the battle raged throughout the day, the king stood propped up in his chariot opposite the Syrians. He died in the evening as the sun was setting.

For innumerable dangers ¹  surround me. My sins overtake me so I am unable to see; they outnumber the hairs of my head so my strength fails me. ² 

I decided ¹  to carefully ²  and thoroughly examine ³  all that has been accomplished on earth. ⁴  I concluded: ⁵  God has given people ⁶  a burdensome task ⁷  that keeps them ⁸  occupied. ⁹ 

If the clouds are full of rain, they will empty themselves on the earth, and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will lie wherever it falls.

From the ends of the earth we ¹  hear songs – the Just One is majestic. ²  But I ³  say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed! Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” ⁴ 

Certainly ¹  caraway seed is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin seed. ²  Certainly caraway seed is beaten with a stick, and cumin seed with a flail.

Each of them ¹  will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from a rainstorm; like streams of water in a dry region and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land.

You assist ¹  those who delight in doing what is right, ²  who observe your commandments. ³  Look, you were angry because we violated them continually. How then can we be saved? ⁴ 

Do not lose your courage or become afraid because of the reports that are heard in the land. For a report will come in one year. Another report will follow it in the next. There will be violence in the land with ruler fighting against ruler.”

not to many peoples of unintelligible speech and difficult language, whose words you cannot understand ¹  – surely if ²  I had sent you to them, they would listen to you!

Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones ¹  will fall and a violent wind will break out. ² 

“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what you have said: “Our rebellious acts and our sins have caught up with us, ¹  and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”’

So let us acknowledge him! ¹  Let us seek ²  to acknowledge ³  the Lord! He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.”

Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain; I myself put a fine yoke ¹ on her neck. I will harness Ephraim. Let Judah plow! ²  Let Jacob break up ³  the unplowed ground for himself!

“But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, ¹  it would be better for him to have a huge millstone ²  hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea. ³ 

“If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone ¹  tied around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.