Anyone who accidentally killed someone ¹  without hating him at the time of the accident ²  could flee to one of those cities and be safe.

If they have any kind of blemish – lameness, blindness, or anything else ¹  – you may not offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord your God.

Now this is the law pertaining to one who flees there in order to live, ¹  if he has accidentally killed another ²  without hating him at the time of the accident. ³ 

The sin we committed at Peor was bad enough. To this very day we have not purified ourselves; it even brought a plague on the community of the Lord. ¹ 

Whenever they went out to fight, ¹  the Lord did them harm, ²  just as he had warned and solemnly vowed he would do. ³  They suffered greatly. ⁴ 

The Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight with Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. ¹  Israel suffered greatly. ² 

The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. ¹  They wanted to kill me; instead they abused my concubine so badly that she died.

Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, ¹  for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”

Eli’s eyes had begun to fail, so that he was unable to see well. At that time he was lying down in his place,

The Philistines arranged their forces to fight ¹  Israel. As the battle spread out, ²  Israel was defeated by ³  the Philistines, who ⁴  killed about four thousand men in the battle line in the field.

The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. ¹  They said, “Too bad for ²  us! We’ve never seen anything like this!

Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert!

When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, the leaders of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the Israelites heard about this, they were afraid of the Philistines.

Then fear overwhelmed ¹  those who were in the camp, those who were in the field, all the army in the garrison, and the raiding bands. They trembled and the ground shook. This fear was caused by God. ² 

Now once again there was war. So David went out to fight the Philistines. He defeated them thoroughly ¹  and they ran away from him.

He said to David, “You are more innocent ¹  than I, for you have treated me well, even though I have tried to harm you!

The young man who was telling him this ¹  said, “I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.

Absalom would then say to him, “Look, your claims are legitimate and appropriate. ¹  But there is no representative of the king who will listen to you.”

The army of Israel was defeated there by David’s men. ¹  The slaughter there was great that day – 20,000 soldiers were killed.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord and followed in the footsteps ²  of his father and mother; like Jeroboam son of Nebat, he encouraged Israel to sin. ³