He captured a young man from Succoth ¹  and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. ² 

The rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has handed Samson, our enemy, over to us.”

At the time of ¹  the harvest three ²  of the thirty leaders went down to ³  David at the cave of Adullam. A band of Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.

Solomon did not assign Israelites to these work crews; ¹  the Israelites served as his soldiers, attendants, officers, charioteers, and commanders of his chariot forces. ² 

She wrote out orders, ¹  signed Ahab’s name to them, ²  and sealed them with his seal. She then sent the orders ³  to the leaders ⁴  and to the nobles who lived in Naboth’s city. ⁵ 

The men of the ¹  city, the leaders ²  and the nobles who lived there, ³  followed the written orders Jezebel had sent them. ⁴ 

Now the king of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his advisers, who said, “Invade ¹  at such and such ²  a place.”

King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his officials, and his eunuchs surrendered ¹  to the king of Babylon. The king of Babylon, in the eighth year of his reign, ²  took Jehoiachin ³  prisoner.

He deported all the residents of Jerusalem, including all the officials and all the soldiers (10,000 people in all). This included all the craftsmen and those who worked with metal. No one was left except for the poorest among the people of the land.

The sons of Bela: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri. The five of them were leaders of their families. There were 22,034 warriors listed in their genealogical records.

The following is a record of the armed warriors who came with their leaders and joined David in Hebron in order to make David king in Saul’s place, in accordance with the Lord’s decree: ¹ 

He placed troops in all of Judah’s fortified cities and posted garrisons ¹  throughout the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that his father Asa had seized.

He appointed military officers over the army ¹  and assembled them in the square at the city gate. He encouraged them, ²  saying,

All the leaders of the priests and people became more unfaithful and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations. ¹  They defiled the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

He carried away to Babylon all the items in God’s temple, whether large or small, as well as what was in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the king and his officials.

But God was watching over ¹  the elders of Judah, and they were not stopped ²  until a report could be dispatched ³  to Darius and a letter could be sent back concerning this.

From that day forward, half of my men were doing the work and half of them were taking up spears, ¹  shields, bows, and body armor. Now the officers were behind all the people ²  of Judah

I said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, “The work is demanding ¹  and extensive, and we are spread out on the wall, far removed from one another.

I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly.

All the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and those who performed the king’s business were assisting the Jews, for the dread of Mordecai had fallen on them.