And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with ¹  his sword drawn in his hand, so the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. But Balaam beat the donkey, to make her turn back to the road.

The Lord’s angelic messenger ¹  came and sat down under the oak tree in Ophrah owned by Joash the Abiezrite. He arrived while Joash’s son Gideon ²  was threshing ³  wheat in a winepress ⁴  so he could hide it from the Midianites. ⁵ 

So ¹  here is what the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, says: “My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria, even though they beat you with a club and lift their cudgel against you as Egypt did. ² 

Next the Lord showed me four blacksmiths. ¹ 

And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself into the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he beat her again. ¹ 

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?”

The Amorite inhabitants of that area ¹  confronted ²  you and chased you like a swarm of bees, striking you down from Seir as far as Hormah. ³ 

“Look, I am making you like ¹  a sharp threshing sledge, new and double-edged. ²  You will thresh the mountains and crush them; you will make the hills like straw. ³ 

I offered my back to those who attacked, ¹  my jaws to those who tore out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spitting.

For after we turned away from you we repented. After we came to our senses ¹  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²  We are ashamed and humiliated because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ³ 

That ¹  servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or do what his master asked ²  will receive a severe beating.

The crowd joined the attack ¹  against them, and the magistrates tore the clothes ²  off Paul and Silas ³  and ordered them to be beaten with rods. ⁴ 

Then the man who was possessed by ¹  the evil spirit jumped on ²  them and beat them all into submission. ³  He prevailed ⁴  against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.

So I entered a complaint with them. I called down a curse on them, and I struck some of the men and pulled out their hair. I had them swear by God saying, “You will not marry off ¹  your daughters to their sons, and you will not take any of their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!

He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. ¹  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ² 

“‘If a man beats any person to death, ¹  he must be put to death.

He also tore down the tower of Penuel and executed the city’s men.

The Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried off captives.

What man is like Job, who ¹  drinks derision ²  like water!

And now ¹  they are tearing down ²  all its engravings ³  with axes ⁴  and crowbars. ⁵