take my advice ¹  and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me ²  white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness ³  will not be exposed, and buy eye salve ⁴  to put on your eyes so you can see!

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, ¹  “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” ²  So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

Gad went to David and told him, “Shall seven ¹  years of famine come upon your land? Or shall you flee for three months from your enemy with him in hot pursuit? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now decide ²  what I should tell the one who sent me.”

three ¹  years of famine, or three months being chased by your enemies and struck down by their swords, ²  or three days being struck down by the Lord, during which a plague will invade the land and the Lord’s messenger will destroy throughout Israel’s territory.’ ³  Now, decide what I should tell the one who sent me.”

So I have made every effort ¹  to provide what is needed for the temple of my God, including the gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, ²  as well as a large amount of onyx, settings of antimony and other stones, all kinds of precious stones, and alabaster.

Men were assigned to take the prisoners and find clothes among the plunder for those who were naked. ¹  So they clothed them, supplied them with sandals, gave them food and drink, and provided them with oil to rub on their skin. ²  They put the ones who couldn’t walk on donkeys. ³  They brought them back to their brothers at Jericho, ⁴  the city of the date palm trees, and then returned to Samaria.

And now, though we share the same flesh and blood as our fellow countrymen, ¹  and our children are just like their children, ²  still we have found it necessary to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. ³  Some of our daughters have been subjected to slavery, while we are powerless to help, ⁴  since our fields and vineyards now belong to other people.” ⁵ 

Instead we will do everything we vowed we would do. ¹  We will sacrifice and pour out drink offerings to the goddess called the Queen of Heaven ²  just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders previously did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and had no troubles. ³ 

How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while you yourself don’t see the beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.