¹ Certainly you must have heard! ²  Long ago I worked it out, in ancient times I planned ³  it, and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins. ⁴ 

“But all these nations will someday taunt him ¹  and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ²  ‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ³  (How long will this go on?) ⁴  – he who gets rich by extortion!’ ⁵ 

Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! ¹ 

“Micah from Moresheth ¹  prophesied during the time Hezekiah was king of Judah. ²  He told all the people of Judah, ‘The Lord who rules over all ³  says, “Zion ⁴  will become a plowed field. Jerusalem ⁵  will become a pile of rubble. The temple mount will become a mere wooded ridge.”’ ⁶ 

Then they said to one another, ¹  “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” ²  (They had brick instead of stone and tar ³  instead of mortar.) ⁴ 

He gave them portions of the food set before him, ¹  but the portion for Benjamin was five times greater than the portions for any of the others. They drank with Joseph until they all became drunk. ² 

They made their lives bitter ¹  by ²  hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service ³  in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. ⁴ 

Then the priest ¹  must remove its entrails by cutting off its tail feathers, ²  and throw them ³  to the east side of the altar into the place of fatty ashes,

You must put pure frankincense ¹  on each row, ²  and it will become a memorial portion ³  for the bread, a gift ⁴  to the Lord.

Furthermore, he must not marry many ¹  wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold.

(Now she had taken them up to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax she had spread out ¹  on the roof.)

So they inquired again of the Lord, “Has the man arrived here yet?” The Lord said, “He has hidden himself among the equipment.” ¹ 

On the third day ¹  you should go down quickly ²  and come to the place where you hid yourself the day this all started. ³  Stay near the stone Ezel.

King David was very old; ¹  even when they covered him with blankets, ²  he could not get warm.

He arranged the wood, cut up the bull, and placed it on the wood.

Each of them quickly took off his cloak and they spread them out at Jehu’s ¹  feet on the steps. ²  The trumpet was blown ³  and they shouted, “Jehu is ⁴  king!”

O Lord our God, all this wealth, which we have collected to build a temple for you to honor your holy name, comes from you; it all belongs to you.

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have behaved in an unfaithful manner by taking foreign wives! This has contributed to the guilt of Israel.

Then those in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers ¹  has failed! The debris is so great that we are unable to rebuild the wall.”

You bring new witnesses ¹  against me, and increase your anger against me; relief troops ²  come against me.