Then David approached the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to go with him, ¹  those whom they had left at the Wadi Besor. They went out to meet David and the people who were with him. When David approached the people, he asked how they were doing.

He will not look on the streams, ¹  the rivers, which are the torrents ²  of honey and butter. ³ 

From there they moved on and camped in the valley of Zered.

For the music director; a well-written song ²  by the Korahites. As a deer ³  longs ⁴  for streams of water, so I long ⁵  for you, O God!

On every high mountain and every high hill there will be streams flowing with water, at the time of ¹  great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse.

Even the wild animals ¹  cry out to you; ²  for the river beds ³  have dried up; fire has destroyed ⁴  the grassy pastures. ⁵ 

Now the length of time it took for us to go from Kadesh Barnea to the crossing of Wadi Zered was thirty-eight years, time for all the military men of that generation to die, just as the Lord had vowed to them.

He took his staff in his hand, picked out five smooth stones from the stream, placed them in the pouch ¹  of his shepherd’s bag, took his sling in hand, and approached the Philistine.

At that time Solomon and all Israel with him celebrated a festival before the Lord our God for two entire weeks. This great assembly included people from all over the land, from Lebo Hamath in the north to the Brook of Egypt ¹  in the south. ² 

As for your sinful thing ¹  that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down, ²  ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

He also removed Maacah his grandmother ¹  from her position as queen because she had made a loathsome Asherah pole. Asa cut down her Asherah pole and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

A large number of people gathered together and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the district. ¹  They reasoned, ²  “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?”

That place was called ¹  the Eshcol Valley, ²  because of the cluster ³  of grapes that the Israelites cut from there.

This is why it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord, “Waheb in Suphah ¹  and the wadis, the Arnon

and the slope of the valleys ¹  that extends to the dwelling of Ar, ²  and falls off at the border of Moab.”

The priests then entered the Lord’s temple to purify it; they brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple every ceremonially unclean thing they discovered inside. ¹  The Levites took them out to the Kidron Valley.

Tomorrow march down against them as ¹  they come up the Ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the ravine in front of the Desert of Jeruel.

They removed the altars in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley. ¹ 

When he had said these things, ¹  Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley. ²  There was an orchard ³  there, and he and his disciples went into it.

The king tore down the altars the kings of Judah had set up on the roof of Ahaz’s upper room, as well as the altars Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple. He crushed them up ¹  and threw the dust in the Kidron Valley.