Now ¹  all the men ²  who left were circumcised, but all the sons ³  born on the journey through the desert after they left Egypt were uncircumcised.

Jephthah said to them, “My people and I were entangled in controversy with the Ammonites. ¹  I asked for your help, but you did not deliver me from their power. ² 

The Lord’s angelic ¹  messenger appeared to the woman and said to her, “You ²  are infertile and childless, ³  but you will conceive and have a son.

We have enough straw and grain for our donkeys, and there is enough food and wine for me, your female servant, ¹  and the young man who is with your servants. ²  We lack nothing.”

But he would give a double ¹  portion to Hannah, because he especially loved her. ²  Now the Lord had not enabled her to have children. ³ 

Now Hannah was speaking from her heart. Although her lips were moving, her voice was inaudible. Eli therefore thought she was drunk.

You will see trouble in my dwelling place! ¹  Israel will experience blessings, ²  but there will not be an old man in your ³  house for all time. ⁴ 

and had warned him about this very thing, so that he would not follow other gods. ¹  But he did not obey ²  the Lord’s command.

(Now the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat unleavened cakes among their fellow priests.) ¹ 

Though Judah was the strongest among his brothers and a leader descended from him, ¹  the right of the firstborn belonged to Joseph.)

The Lord sent prophets among them to lead them back to him. ¹  They warned ²  the people, but they would not pay attention.

Ahaz gathered riches ¹  from the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and the officials and gave them to the king of Assyria, but that did not help.

From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. However, the Lord’s temple was not at that time established. ¹ 

Then this Sheshbazzar went and laid the foundations of the temple of God in Jerusalem. From that time to the present moment ¹  it has been in the process of being rebuilt, although it is not yet finished.’

With Job’s ¹  three friends he was also angry, because they could not find ²  an answer, and so declared Job guilty. ³ 

When the wicked sprout up like grass, and all the evildoers glisten, ¹  it is so that they may be annihilated. ² 

O Lord our God, you answered them. They found you to be a forgiving God, but also one who punished their sinful deeds. ¹ 

Although ¹  a righteous person may fall seven times, he gets up again, but the wicked will be brought down ²  by calamity.

Although an assailant may overpower ¹  one person, two can withstand him. Moreover, a three-stranded cord is not quickly broken.

Then that wealth was lost through bad luck; ¹  although he fathered a son, he has nothing left to give him. ²