You must be loyal ¹  to your servant, for you have made a covenant with your servant in the Lord’s name. ²  If I am guilty, ³  you yourself kill me! Why bother taking me to your father?”

(21:2) David went to Ahimelech the priest in Nob. Ahimelech was shaking with fear when he met ¹  David, and said to him, “Why are you by yourself with no one accompanying you?”

Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right or to your left. Capture one of the soldiers ¹  and take his equipment for yourself!” But Asahel was not willing to turn aside from following him.

Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise ¹  yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam’s wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there. ² 

Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you planned. ¹  But first make a small cake for me and bring it to me; then make something for yourself and your son.

You performed awesome signs ¹  against Pharaoh, against his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew that the Egyptians ²  had acted presumptuously ³  against them. You made for yourself a name that is celebrated to this day.

You said to yourself, ¹  “I will climb up to the sky. Above the stars of El ²  I will set up my throne. I will rule on the mountain of assembly on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ³ 

Then you will think to yourself, ¹  ‘Who bore these children for me? I was bereaved and barren, dismissed and divorced. ²  Who raised these children? Look, I was left all alone; where did these children come from?’”

Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ¹  Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity! Did you not smash ²  the Proud One? ³  Did you not ⁴  wound the sea monster? ⁵ 

Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful clothes, O Jerusalem, ¹  holy city! For uncircumcised and unclean pagans will no longer invade you.

Like an animal that goes down into a valley to graze, ¹  so the Spirit of the Lord granted them rest. In this way ²  you guided your people, gaining for yourself an honored reputation. ³ 

They say, ‘Keep to yourself! Don’t get near me, for I am holier than you!’ These people are like smoke in my nostrils, like a fire that keeps burning all day long.

“But you, Jeremiah, ¹  get yourself ready! ²  Go and tell these people everything I instruct you to say. Do not be terrified of them, or I will give you good reason to be terrified of them. ³ 

What will you say ¹  when the Lord ²  appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? ³  Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ⁴ 

You will probably ask yourself, ¹  ‘Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ ²  It is because you have sinned so much. ³ 

You yourself will not escape his clutches, but will certainly be captured and handed over to him. You must confront the king of Babylon face to face and answer to him personally. ¹  Then you must go to Babylon.

But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians ¹  and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’” ² 

“All your wives and your children will be turned over to the Babylonians. ¹  You yourself will not escape from them but will be captured by the ²  king of Babylon. This city will be burned down.” ³ 

You also took your beautiful jewelry, made of my gold and my silver I had given to you, and made for yourself male images and engaged in prostitution ¹  with them.

“Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of the land of Egypt with great power ¹  and made a name for yourself that is remembered to this day – we have sinned and behaved wickedly.