for which I suffer hardship to the point of imprisonment ¹  as a criminal, but God’s message ²  is not imprisoned! ³ 

He did this so the violent deaths of Jerub-Baal’s seventy sons might be avenged and Abimelech, their half-brother ¹  who murdered them, might have to pay for their spilled blood, along with the leaders of Shechem who helped him murder them. ² 

Even though a sinner might commit a hundred crimes ¹  and still live a long time, ²  yet I know that it will go well with God-fearing people ³  – for they stand in fear ⁴  before him.

Have you forgotten all the wicked things that have been done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem by your ancestors, by the kings of Judah and their ¹  wives, by you and your wives?

This is what the Lord says: “Because Damascus has committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They ripped through Gilead like threshing sledges with iron teeth. ⁴ 

This is what the Lord says: “Because Gaza ¹  has committed three crimes ²  – make that four! ³  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ⁴  They deported a whole community ⁵  and sold them ⁶  to Edom.

This is what the Lord says: “Because Tyre has committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They sold ⁴  a whole community ⁵  to Edom; they failed to observe ⁶  a treaty of brotherhood. ⁷ 

This is what the Lord says: “Because Moab has committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They burned the bones of Edom’s king into lime. ⁴ 

When the chief priests and their officers saw him, they shouted out, “Crucify ¹  him! Crucify him!” ²  Pilate said, ³  “You take him and crucify him! ⁴  Certainly ⁵  I find no reason for an accusation ⁶  against him!”

‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father.” When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept. ¹ 

This is what the Lord says: “Because Edom has committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  He chased his brother ⁴  with a sword; he wiped out his allies. ⁵  In his anger he tore them apart without stopping to rest; ⁶  in his fury he relentlessly attacked them. ⁷ 

So the priest will make atonement ¹  on his behalf before the Lord and he will be forgiven ²  for whatever he has done to become guilty.” ³ 

You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. ¹ 

you must bring to your city gates ¹  that man or woman who has done this wicked thing – that very man or woman – and you must stone that person to death. ² 

You must not pity him, but purge out the blood of the innocent ¹  from Israel, so that it may go well with you.

In this manner you will purge out the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right before ¹  the Lord.

You must not do anything to the young woman – she has done nothing deserving of death. This case is the same as when someone attacks another person ¹  and murders him,

The sin we committed at Peor was bad enough. To this very day we have not purified ourselves; it even brought a plague on the community of the Lord. ¹ 

God repaid Abimelech for the evil he did to his father by murdering his seventy half-brothers. ¹ 

The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. Then the Israelites said, “Explain how this wicked thing happened!”