“So now, please let your servant remain as my lord’s slave instead of the boy. As for the boy, let him go back with his brothers.

“Look, ¹  I myself have taken the Levites from among the Israelites instead of ²  every firstborn who opens the womb among the Israelites. So the Levites belong to me,

But Hobab ¹  said to him, “I will not go, but I will go instead to my own land and to my kindred.”

I spoke to you, but you did not listen. Instead you rebelled against the Lord ¹  and recklessly went up to the hill country.

Instead, the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy ¹  is one of hills and valleys, a land that drinks in water from the rains, ² 

Instead, you must kill him without fail! ¹  Your own hand must be the first to strike him, ²  and then the hands of the whole community.

Instead you must utterly annihilate them ¹  – the Hittites, ²  Amorites, ³  Canaanites, ⁴  Perizzites, ⁵  Hivites, ⁶  and Jebusites ⁷  – just as the Lord your God has commanded you,

But the people refused to heed Samuel’s warning. ¹  Instead they said, “No! There will be a king over us!

Why haven’t you obeyed ¹  the Lord? Instead you have greedily rushed upon the plunder! You have done what is wrong in the Lord’s estimation.” ² 

When the time came for Merab, Saul’s daughter, to be given to David, she instead was given in marriage to Adriel, who was from Meholah.

But when she took the pan and set it before him, he refused to eat. Instead Amnon said, “Get everyone out of here!” ¹  So everyone left. ² 

But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors ¹  and worshiped instead ²  the gods of the native peoples ³  whom God had destroyed before them.

for they had not met the Israelites with food ¹  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

You may say, ¹  ‘God stores up a man’s ²  punishment for his children!’ ³  Instead let him repay ⁴  the man himself ⁵  so that ⁶  he may know it!

We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it. We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror. ¹ 

Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to ¹  the gods called Baal, ²  as their fathers ³  taught them to do.

So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”

Instead, they tried to row ¹  back to land, ²  but they were not able to do so ³  because the storm kept growing worse and worse. ⁴ 

Instead he will say, ‘I am no prophet – indeed, I am a farmer, for a man has made me his indentured servant since my youth.’ ¹ 

But the centurion replied, ¹  “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Instead, just say the word and my servant will be healed.