We are experiencing trouble on every side, ¹  but are not crushed; we are perplexed, ²  but not driven to despair;

For even when we came into Macedonia, our body ¹  had no rest at all, but we were troubled in every way – struggles from the outside, fears from within.

And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a hundred pounds ¹  each, fell from heaven ²  on people, ³  but they ⁴  blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it ⁵  was so horrendous. ⁶ 

So Leah became pregnant ¹  and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, ²  for she said, “The Lord has looked with pity on my oppressed condition. ³  Surely my husband will love me now.”

If you mistreat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one else is with us, realize ¹  that God is witness to your actions.” ² 

The Lord did so; a ¹  thick ²  swarm of flies came into ³  Pharaoh’s house and into the houses ⁴  of his servants, and throughout the whole land of Egypt the land was ruined ⁵  because of the swarms of flies.

You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. ¹ 

instead in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and poverty ¹  you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. They ²  will place an iron yoke on your neck until they have destroyed you.

You will then eat your own offspring, ¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ²  by which your enemies will constrict you.

He will withhold from all of them his children’s flesh that he is eating (since there is nothing else left), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict ¹  you in your villages.

Look, you will conceive and have a son. ¹  You must never cut his hair, ²  for the child will be dedicated to God ³  from birth. He will begin to deliver Israel from the power ⁴  of the Philistines.”

But Hannah replied, “That’s not the way it is, ¹  my lord! I am under a great deal of stress. ²  I have drunk neither wine nor beer. Rather, I have poured out my soul to ³  the Lord.

But some wicked men ¹  said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and did not even bring him a gift. But Saul said nothing about it. ² 

Act now! For the Lord has said to David, ‘By the hand of my servant David I will save ¹  my people Israel from ²  the Philistines and from all their enemies.’”

Jehoahaz had no army left ¹  except for fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and 10,000 foot soldiers. The king of Syria had destroyed his troops ²  and trampled on them like dust. ³ 

This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of ¹  Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped ²  other gods;

I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly.

The rest of the Jews who were throughout the provinces of the king assembled in order to stand up for themselves and to have rest from their enemies. They killed seventy-five thousand ¹  of their adversaries, but they did not confiscate their property.

The days of our lives add up to seventy years, ¹  or eighty, if one is especially strong. ²  But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. ³  Yes, ⁴  they pass quickly ⁵  and we fly away. ⁶ 

So ¹  here is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did. ²