O my downtrodden people, crushed like stalks on the threshing floor, ¹  what I have heard from the Lord who commands armies, the God of Israel, I have reported to you.

“I announced events beforehand, ¹  I issued the decrees and made the predictions; ²  suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

you asked, ¹  ‘Who is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?’ But ²  I have declared without understanding ³  things too wonderful for me to know. ⁴ 

I decreed and delivered and proclaimed, and there was no other god among you. You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I am God.

You must go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your ¹  God that I have come into the land that the Lord ²  promised ³  to our ancestors ⁴  to give us.”

I declare to you this very day that you will certainly ¹  perish! You will not extend your time in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess. ² 

So Samson’s bride cried on his shoulder ¹  and said, “You must ²  hate me; you do not love me! You told the young men ³  a riddle, but you have not told me the solution.” He said to her, “Look, I have not even told my father or mother. Do you really expect me to tell you?” ⁴ 

I got up during the night, along with a few men who were with me. But I did not tell anyone what my God was putting on my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no animals with me, except for the one ¹  I was riding.

The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had been doing, for up to this point I had not told any of the Jews or the priests or the nobles or the officials or the rest of the workers.