¹ Now as Saul watched David going out to fight the Philistine, he asked Abner, the general in command of the army, “Whose son is this young man, Abner?” Abner replied, “As surely as you live, O king, I don’t know.”

He captured a young man from Succoth ¹  and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of Succoth’s officials and city leaders – seventy-seven men in all. ² 

But if I say to the boy, “Look, the arrows are on the other side of you,’ ¹  get away. For in that case the Lord has sent you away.

Then compare our appearance ¹  with that of ²  the young men who are eating the royal delicacies; ³  deal with us ⁴  in light of what you see.”

At the end of the ten days their appearance was better and their bodies were healthier ¹  than all the young men who had been eating the royal delicacies.

Now as for these four young men, God endowed them with knowledge and skill in all sorts of literature and wisdom – and Daniel had insight into all kinds of visions and dreams.

When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved ¹  the child under one of the shrubs.

But he ¹  responded to Daniel, “I fear my master the king. He is the one who has decided ²  your food and drink. What would happen if he saw that you looked malnourished in comparison to the other young men your age? ³  If that happened, ⁴  you would endanger my life ⁵  with the king!”

If anyone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his virgin, ¹  if she is past the bloom of youth ²  and it seems necessary, he should do what he wishes; he does not sin. Let them marry.

The one who gathers crops ¹  in the summer is a wise ²  son, but the one who sleeps ³  during the harvest is a son who brings shame to himself. ⁴ 

I made some of your sons prophets and some of your young men Nazirites. ¹  Is this not true, you Israelites?” The Lord is speaking!

Never again will one of her infants live just a few days ¹  or an old man die before his time. ²  Indeed, no one will die before the age of a hundred, ³  anyone who fails to reach ⁴  the age of a hundred will be considered cursed.

young men in whom there was no physical defect and who were handsome, ¹  well versed in all kinds of wisdom, well educated ²  and having keen insight, ³  and who were capable ⁴  of entering the king’s royal service ⁵  – and to teach them the literature and language ⁶  of the Babylonians. ⁷ 

Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.

Because he covered his face with fat, ¹  and made ²  his hips bulge with fat, ³ 

just as I was in my most productive time, ¹  when God’s intimate friendship ²  was experienced in my tent,

He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their reproductive power ¹  in the tents of Ham.

I am fading away like a shadow at the end of the day; ¹  I am shaken off like a locust.

The Lord is your protector; the Lord is the shade at your right hand.