The priest replied to David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is available, and then only if your soldiers ¹  have abstained from sexual relations with women.” ² 

Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word which you have announced is appropriate.” ¹  Then he added, ²  “At least there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.” ³ 

Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, ¹  and on my return I would have received my money back with interest! ² 

So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? ¹ 

When those days ¹  were completed, the king then provided a seven-day ²  banquet for all the people who were present ³  in Susa the citadel, for those of highest standing to the most lowly. ⁴  It was held in the court located in the garden of the royal palace.

Joshua campaigned against ¹  these kings for quite some time. ² 

The king went up to the Lord’s temple, accompanied by all the people of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, the priests, and the Levites. All the people were there, from the oldest to the youngest. He read aloud all the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been discovered in the Lord’s temple.

“Listen carefully ¹  to my words; let this be ²  the consolation you offer me. ³ 

so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name!

It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the Lord favored and chose you – for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples.

Then I would yet have my comfort, ¹  then ²  I would rejoice, ³  in spite of pitiless pain, ⁴  for ⁵  I have not concealed the words ⁶  of the Holy One. ⁷ 

There is little Benjamin, their ruler, ¹  and the princes of Judah in their robes, ²  along with the princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.

For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything; they have no further reward – and even the memory of them disappears. ¹ 

Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The Lord’s word which you have announced is appropriate.” ¹  Then he thought, ²  “For ³  there will be peace and stability during my lifetime.”

And as for them, ¹  whether they listen ²  or not – for they are a rebellious ³  house ⁴  – they will know that a prophet has been among them.

“For look, I am giving a command and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations. It will resemble a sieve being shaken, when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ¹ 

It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest garden plant and becomes a tree, ¹  so that the wild birds ²  come and nest in its branches.” ³ 

So ¹  the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your place.’ Then, ashamed, ²  you will begin to move to the least important ³  place.

Why then didn’t you put ¹  my money in the bank, ²  so that when I returned I could have collected it with interest?’

saying, “If you had only known on this day, ¹  even you, the things that make for peace! ²  But now they are hidden ³  from your eyes.