In the evening there is sudden terror; ¹  by morning they vanish. ²  This is the fate of those who try to plunder us, the destiny of those who try to loot us! ³ 

Look, my earlier predictive oracles have come to pass; ¹  now I announce new events. Before they begin to occur, I reveal them to you.” ² 

Before they even call out, ¹  I will respond; while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Now ¹  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ²  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ³ 

Before they could lie down to sleep, ¹  all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house. ² 

Then prepare for me some tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me. Then ¹  I will eat it so that I may bless you ²  before I die.”

Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came. ¹  Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, was their mother. ² 

The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew ¹  women are not like the Egyptian women – for the Hebrew women ²  are vigorous; they give birth before the midwife gets to them!” ³ 

But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, ¹  the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.

Bright and early the next morning Joshua and the Israelites left Shittim and came to the Jordan. ¹  They camped there before crossing the river. ² 

Here is why this will be so: ¹  Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose what is right, the land ²  whose two kings you fear will be desolate. ³ 

for before the child knows how to cry out, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria ¹  will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” ² 

I announced them to you beforehand; before they happened, I predicted them for you, so you could never say, ‘My image did these things, my idol, my cast image, decreed them.’

The Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah ¹  about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. ² 

before your evil was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn to the daughters of Aram ¹  and all those around her and to the daughters of the Philistines – those all around you who despise you.

Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, ¹  before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. ² 

Before he had finished praying, there came Rebekah ¹  with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah (Milcah was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor). ² 

“Before I finished praying in my heart, ¹  along came Rebekah ²  with her water jug on her shoulder! She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’

Isaac began to shake violently ¹  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ²  He will indeed be blessed!”

Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long ¹  will this man be a menace ²  to us? Release the people so that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not know ³  that Egypt is destroyed?”