When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and the Lord’s splendor over the temple, they got on their knees with their faces downward toward the pavement. They worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, ¹  “Certainly he is good; certainly his loyal love endures!”

Even if a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years – even if he lives a long, long time, ¹  but cannot enjoy his prosperity – even if he were to live forever ²  – I would say, “A stillborn child ³  is better off than he is!” ⁴ 

Never again will one of her infants live just a few days ¹  or an old man die before his time. ²  Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred, ³  anyone who fails to reach ⁴  the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.

“Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. ¹  They will be like an overflowing stream. They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood. They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants. People will cry out in alarm. Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.

“Announce ¹  the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! ²  Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel ³  will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images ⁴  will be dismayed. ⁵ 

“I sent against you a plague like one of the Egyptian plagues. ¹  I killed your young men with the sword, along with the horses you had captured. I made the stench from the corpses ²  rise up into your nostrils. Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ¹  His appetite ²  is as big as Sheol’s; ³  like death, he is never satisfied. He gathers ⁴  all the nations; he seizes ⁵  all peoples.

Already you are satisfied! Already you are rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you had become kings so that we could reign with you!

and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders threw themselves to the ground ¹  before the Lamb. Each ²  of them had a harp and golden bowls full of incense (which are the prayers of the saints). ³ 

God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms ¹  of living creatures and let birds fly ²  above the earth across the expanse of the sky.”

Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. ¹  When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, ²  but some survivors ³  fled to the hills. ⁴ 

Early in the morning ¹  Abimelech summoned ²  all his servants. When he told them about all these things, ³  they ⁴  were terrified.

When she had done so, ¹  she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have drunk as much as they want.”

She quickly emptied ¹  her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw more water until she had drawn enough for all his camels.

Then God said to him, “I am the sovereign God. ¹  Be fruitful and multiply! A nation – even a company of nations – will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants! ² 

So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph, ¹  one in whom the Spirit of God is present?” ² 

Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea, ¹  until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.

Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar and put in it an omer full of manna, and place it before the Lord to be kept for generations to come.”

“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. ¹  You must give me the firstborn of your sons.

Little by little ¹  I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.