“O earth, do not cover my blood, ¹  nor let there be a secret ²  place for my cry.

But the Lord said, “What have you done? ¹  The voice ²  of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!

A song, a psalm of Asaph. O God, do not be silent! Do not ignore us! ²  Do not be inactive, O God!

Don’t allow him to rest until he reestablishes Jerusalem, ¹  until he makes Jerusalem the pride ²  of the earth.

‘“Know for sure that I saw the shed blood of Naboth and his sons yesterday,” says the Lord, “and that I will give you what you deserve right here in this plot of land,” ¹  says the Lord.’ So now pick him up and throw him into this plot of land, just as the Lord said.” ² 

So now, you are banished ¹  from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

If she bears a female child, she will be impure fourteen days as during her menstrual flow, and she will remain sixty-six days in ¹  blood purity. ² 

You will destroy the family of your master Ahab. ¹  I will get revenge against Jezebel for the shed blood of my servants the prophets and for the shed blood of all the Lord’s servants. ² 

At that time ¹  the sovereign master ²  will wash the excrement ³  from Zion’s women, he will rinse the bloodstains from Jerusalem’s midst, ⁴  as he comes to judge and to bring devastation. ⁵ 

I ¹  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they should keep praying all day and all night. ²  You who pray to ³  the Lord, don’t be silent!

“You know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me – how he murdered two commanders of the Israelite armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. ¹  During peacetime he struck them down like he would in battle; ²  when he shed their blood as if in battle, he stained his own belt and the sandals on his feet. ³ 

Now don’t let my blood fall to the ground away from the Lord’s presence, for the king of Israel has gone out to look for a flea the way one looks for a partridge ¹  in the hill country.”

The Lord has punished you for ¹  all the spilled blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you rule. Now the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. Disaster has overtaken you, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

The king told him, “Do as he said! Strike him down and bury him. Take away from me and from my father’s family ¹  the guilt of Joab’s murderous, bloody deeds. ² 

Then the Lord said to Hosea, ¹  “Name him ‘Jezreel,’ because in a little while I will punish ²  the dynasty ³  of Jehu on account of the bloodshed ⁴  in the valley of Jezreel, ⁵  and I will put an end to the kingdom ⁶  of Israel. ⁷