For we have been sold ¹  – both I and my people – to destruction and to slaughter and to annihilation! If we had simply been sold as male and female slaves, I would have remained silent, for such distress would not have been sufficient for troubling the king.”

(8:23) ¹  The gloom will be dispelled for those who were anxious. ²  In earlier times he ³  humiliated the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali; ⁴  but now he brings honor ⁵  to the way of the sea, the region beyond the Jordan, and Galilee of the nations. ⁶ 

So know and understand: From the issuing of the command ¹  to restore and rebuild Jerusalem ²  until an anointed one, a prince arrives, ³  there will be a period of seven weeks ⁴  and sixty-two weeks. It will again be built, ⁵  with plaza and moat, but in distressful times.

When all the land of Egypt experienced the famine, the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. Pharaoh said to all the people of Egypt, ¹  “Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.”

While the famine was over all the earth, ¹  Joseph opened the storehouses ²  and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt.

But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away ¹  because of the famine.

And he ¹  brought signs and great, devastating wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on his whole family ²  before our very eyes.

Then an evil spirit from the Lord came upon ¹  Saul. He was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing the lyre. ² 

In the same way that I valued your life this day, ¹  may the Lord value my life ²  and deliver me from all danger.”

David replied to Recab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered my life from all adversity,

But Amnon became frustrated because he was so lovesick ¹  over his sister Tamar. For she was a virgin, and to Amnon it seemed out of the question to do anything to her.

The Lord saw Israel’s intense suffering; ¹  everyone was weak and incapacitated and Israel had no deliverer. ² 

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official ¹  heard all this, they were very displeased that someone had come to seek benefit for the Israelites.

Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you pay no attention during times of trouble? ² 

For the music director; a psalm of David. May the Lord answer ²  you ³  when you are in trouble; ⁴  may the God of Jacob ⁵  make you secure!

For this reason every one of your faithful followers ¹  should pray to you while there is a window of opportunity. ²  Certainly ³  when the surging water ⁴  rises, it will not reach them. ⁵ 

You are my hiding place; you protect me from distress. You surround me with shouts of joy from those celebrating deliverance. ¹  (Selah)

God settles those who have been deserted in their own homes; ¹  he frees prisoners and grants them prosperity. ²  But sinful rebels live in the desert. ³ 

Their insults are painful ¹  and make me lose heart; ²  I look ³  for sympathy, but receive none, ⁴  for comforters, but find none.

In my time of trouble I sought ¹  the Lord. I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ²  I ³  refused to be comforted.