For we groan while we are in this tent, ¹  since we are weighed down, ²  because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, ¹  because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases, ²  as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly.

If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears ¹  – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, ²  and he rebuked you last night.”

and will secretly eat her afterbirth ¹  and her newborn children ²  (since she has nothing else), ³  because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really turning to the Lord with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. ¹  Give your hearts to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will deliver you ²  from the hand of the Philistines.”

“At this time tomorrow I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin. You must consecrate ¹  him as a leader over my people Israel. He will save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked with favor on my people. Their cry has reached me!”

But the former governors who preceded me had burdened the people and had taken food and wine from them, in addition to ¹  forty shekels of silver. Their associates were also domineering over the people. But I did not behave in this way, due to my fear of God.

(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 

that sends messengers by sea, who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus. Go, you swift messengers, to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, ¹  to a people that are feared far and wide, ²  to a nation strong and victorious, ³  whose land rivers divide. ⁴ 

At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord who commands armies, by a people that are tall and smooth-skinned, a people that are feared far and wide, a nation strong and victorious, whose land rivers divide. ¹  The tribute ²  will be brought to the place where the Lord who commands armies has chosen to reside, on Mount Zion. ³ 

Why do you forget ¹  the Lord, who made you, who stretched out the sky ²  and founded the earth? Why do you constantly tremble all day long ³  at the anger of the oppressor, when he makes plans to destroy? Where is the anger of the oppressor? ⁴ 

The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has chosen ¹  me. ²  He has commissioned ³  me to encourage ⁴  the poor, to help ⁵  the brokenhearted, to decree the release of captives, and the freeing of prisoners,

O royal family descended from David. ¹  The Lord says: ‘See to it that people each day ²  are judged fairly. ³  Deliver those who have been robbed from those ⁴  who oppress them. Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you. It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out because of the evil that you have done. ⁵ 

Then he spoke up in the presence of all the people. “The Lord says, ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of servitude of all the nations to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ¹  before two years are over.’” After he heard this, the prophet Jeremiah departed and went on his way. ² 

refrains from wrongdoing, ¹  does not engage in usury or charge interest, carries out my regulations and follows my statutes. He will not die for his father’s iniquity; ²  he will surely live.

I listened and my stomach churned; ¹  the sound made my lips quiver. My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, ²  and I shook as I tried to walk. ³  I long ⁴  for the day of distress to come upon ⁵  the people who attack us.