Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. ¹  Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.

And who is like your people, Israel, a unique nation ¹  in the earth? Their God ²  went to claim ³  a nation for himself! You made a name for yourself by doing great and awesome deeds ⁴  when you drove out ⁵  nations before your people whom you had delivered from the Egyptian empire and its gods. ⁶ 

Solomon took a census ¹  of all the male resident foreigners in the land of Israel, after the census his father David had taken. There were 153,600 in all.

When they return to you with all their heart and being ¹  in the land where they are held prisoner and direct their prayers toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, ² 

With the timber the king made steps ¹  for the Lord’s temple and royal palace as well as stringed instruments ²  for the musicians. No one had seen anything like them in the land of Judah prior to that. ³ )

From the day that I was appointed ¹  governor ²  in the land of Judah, that is, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes – twelve years in all – neither I nor my relatives ³  ate the food allotted to the governor. ⁴ 

So the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered ¹  my servant Job? There ²  is no one like him on the earth, a pure and upright man, one who fears God and turns away ³  from evil.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a pure and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil. And he still holds firmly ¹  to his integrity, ²  so that ³  you stirred me up to destroy him ⁴  without reason.” ⁵ 

A psalm of David, written when he was in the Judean wilderness. ²  O God, you are my God! I long for you! ³  My soul thirsts ⁴  for you, my flesh yearns for you, in a dry and parched ⁵  land where there is no water.

This is a message ¹  about the animals in the Negev: Through a land of distress and danger, inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions, ²  by snakes and darting adders, ³  they transport ⁴  their wealth on the backs of donkeys, their riches on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot help them. ⁵ 

The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood, it is covered ¹  with fat; it drips ²  with the blood of young rams and goats and is covered ³  with the fat of rams’ kidneys. For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁴  in Bozrah, ⁵  a bloody ⁶  slaughter in the land of Edom.

“Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ¹  ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, ²  how devoted you were to me in your early years. ³  I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

In those days, your population will greatly increase ¹  in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark ²  that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. ³  They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! ⁴ 

“So then, Jeremiah, ¹  when your people ²  ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ tell them, ‘It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So ³  you must serve foreigners ⁴  in a land that does not belong to you.’

The Lord says, ¹  “These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows. Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. ²  They have become powerful in the land, but they have not done so by honest means. ³  Indeed, they do one evil thing after another ⁴  and do not pay attention to me. ⁵ 

If people want to boast, they should boast about this: They should boast that they understand and know me. They should boast that they know and understand that I, the Lord, act out of faithfulness, fairness, and justice in the earth and that I desire people to do these things,” ¹  says the Lord.

I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name. They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the Lord, say this about ¹  them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’ ² 

For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to ¹  the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers. ² 

You will lose your hold on the land ¹  which I gave to you as a permanent possession. I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about. For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.” ² 

The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  says, “I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns. When I do, they will again say ²  of Jerusalem, ³  ‘May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain, the place where righteousness dwells.’ ⁴