Some time later Absalom managed to acquire ¹  a chariot and horses, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. ² 

including craftsmen, builders, and masons, and should buy wood and chiseled stone for the repair work. ¹ 

¹ “Foreigners will take care of ²  your sheep; foreigners will work in your fields and vineyards.

If he said, ¹  ‘The speckled animals ²  will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring.

You must pay his wage that very day before the sun sets, for he is poor and his life depends on it. Otherwise he will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Amaziah asked the prophet: ¹  “But what should I do about the hundred talents of silver I paid the Israelite troops?” The prophet ²  replied, “The Lord is capable of giving you more than that.”

So they provided money ¹  for the masons and carpenters, and food, beverages, and olive oil for the people of Sidon ²  and Tyre, ³  so that they would bring cedar timber from Lebanon to the seaport ⁴  at Joppa, in accord with the edict of King Cyrus of Persia.

Her profits and earnings will be set apart for the Lord. They will not be stored up or accumulated, for her profits will be given to those who live in the Lord’s presence and will be used to purchase large quantities of food and beautiful clothes. ¹ 

It is me – I stir him up and commission him; ¹  I will make all his ways level. He will rebuild my city; he will send my exiled people home, but not for a price or a bribe,” says the Lord who commands armies.

They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; ¹  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, ²  declares the sovereign Lord. ³ 

Her ¹  leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, ²  her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust ³  the Lord and say, “The Lord is among us. ⁴  Disaster will not overtake ⁵  us!”

“I ¹  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ²  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ³  who refuse to help ⁴  the immigrant ⁵  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Now this man Micah owned a shrine. ¹  He made an ephod ²  and some personal idols and hired one of his sons to serve as a priest. ³ 

They would then hand over ¹  the silver that had been weighed to the construction foremen ²  assigned to the Lord’s temple. They hired carpenters and builders to work on the Lord’s temple,

But a prophet ¹  visited him and said: “O king, the Israelite troops must not go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel or any of the Ephraimites. ² 

They gave money to the craftsmen and builders to buy chiseled stone and wood for the braces and rafters of the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into disrepair. ¹ 

The Beloved to Her Lover: Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon; he leased out ¹  the vineyard to those who maintained it. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

The prophets prophesy lies. The priests exercise power by their own authority. ¹  And my people love to have it this way. But they will not be able to help you when the time of judgment comes! ² 

I will send men against it to destroy it ¹  with their axes and hatchets. They will hack up its fine cedar panels and columns and throw them into the fire.

Destructive forces will come against her horses and her ¹  chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; ²  they will be as frightened as women! ³  Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder!