The Lord’s angelic messenger said to Elijah, “Go down with him. Don’t be afraid of him.” So he got up and went down ¹  with him to the king.

The watchman reported, “He reached them, but hasn’t started back. The one who drives the lead chariot drives like Jehu son of Nimshi; ¹  he drives recklessly.”

So the Lord’s messenger told Gad to instruct David to go up and build ¹  an altar for the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the messenger, and he and his four sons hid themselves.

They called out loudly in the Judahite dialect to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, trying to scare and terrify them so they could seize the city.

The couriers who were riding the royal horses went forth with the king’s edict without delay. ¹  And the law was presented in Susa the citadel as well.

and if ¹  God ²  is gracious to him and says, ‘Spare ³  him from going down to the place of corruption, I have found a ransom for him,’ ⁴ 

His raging anger lashed out against them, ¹  He sent fury, rage, and trouble as messengers who bring disaster. ² 

I heard the voice of the sovereign master say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” ¹  I answered, “Here I am, send me!”

“It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.” ¹ 

Cursed be the man who made my father very glad when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him! ¹ 

Turning to me, the messenger then said, “Cry out that the Lord who rules over all says, ‘I am very much moved ¹  for Jerusalem and for Zion.

“I am about to punish them ¹  in such a way,” he says, “that they will be looted by their own slaves.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me.

Next I saw Joshua the high priest ¹  standing before the angel of the Lord, with Satan ²  standing at his right hand to accuse him.

“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple, ¹  and his hands will complete it.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Someone asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.” ¹ 

The messenger replied, “These are the four spirits ¹  of heaven that have been presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth.

Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: ¹  first, Simon ²  (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother;

He ¹  appointed twelve (whom he named apostles ² ), ³  so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach

While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue ruler’s ¹  house saying, “Your daughter has died. Why trouble the teacher any longer?”