Their residents are powerless; ¹  they are terrified and ashamed. They are as short-lived as plants in the field or green vegetation. ²  They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ³  when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁴ 

No foreigner who becomes a follower of ¹  the Lord should say, ‘The Lord will certainly ²  exclude me from his people.’ The eunuch should not say, ‘Look, I am like a dried-up tree.’”

This is in spite of the fact that ¹  the people of Judah have as many gods as they have towns ²  and the citizens of Jerusalem have set up as many altars to sacrifice to that disgusting god, Baal, as they have streets in the city!’ ³ 

If you are careful to ¹  obey these commands, then the kings who follow in David’s succession and ride in chariots or on horses will continue to come through the gates of this palace, as will their officials and their subjects. ² 

I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done. ¹  I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem, ²  and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed.”’” ³ 

“But as for you, son of man, your people ¹  (who are talking about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses) say to one another, ²  ‘Come hear the word that comes ³  from the Lord.’

Residents ¹  of Shaphir, ²  pass by in nakedness and humiliation! ³  The residents of Zaanan can’t leave their city. ⁴  Beth Ezel ⁵  mourns, ⁶  “He takes from you what he desires.” ⁷ 

For the people who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize ¹  him, ²  and they fulfilled the sayings ³  of the prophets that are read every Sabbath by condemning ⁴  him. ⁵ 

So the next day Agrippa ¹  and Bernice came with great pomp ²  and entered the audience hall, ³  along with the senior military officers ⁴  and the prominent men of the city. When Festus ⁵  gave the order, ⁶  Paul was brought in.

Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

you must select without fail ¹  a king whom the Lord your God chooses. From among your fellow citizens ²  you must appoint a king – you may not designate a foreigner who is not one of your fellow Israelites. ³ 

“Tell ¹  all the leaders of Shechem this: ‘Why would you want ²  to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal’s sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.’” ³ 

But you have attacked ¹  my father’s family ²  today. You murdered his seventy legitimate ³  sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative. ⁴ 

he ¹  went and took the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan ²  from the leaders ³  of Jabesh Gilead. (They had secretly taken ⁴  them from the plaza at Beth Shan. It was there that Philistines ⁵  publicly exposed their corpses ⁶  after ⁷  they ⁸  had killed Saul at Gilboa.)

They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the silver that had been brought to God’s temple. The Levites who guarded the door had collected it from the people of ¹  Manasseh and Ephraim and from all who were left in Israel, as well as from all the people of ²  Judah and Benjamin and the residents of ³  Jerusalem.

A Passover like this had not been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had observed a Passover like the one celebrated by Josiah, the priests, the Levites, all the people of Judah and Israel who were there, and the residents of Jerusalem.

I ¹  said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened in the early morning, ²  until those who are standing guard close the doors and lock them. ³  Position residents of Jerusalem as guards, some at their guard stations and some near their homes.”

But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ¹  doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. ²  So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ³  I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ⁴ 

So I, the Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, say: ¹  “I will soon bring on Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem all the disaster that I threatened to bring on them. I will do this because I spoke to them but they did not listen. I called out to them but they did not answer.”’”

“Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. ¹  They will be like an overflowing stream. They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood. They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants. People will cry out in alarm. Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.