For you are a people holy ¹  to the Lord your God. He ²  has chosen you to be his people, prized ³  above all others on the face of the earth.

Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will ¹  from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, ²  to the place the Lord chooses

So when the Lord your God gives you relief from all the enemies who surround you in the land he ¹  is giving you as an inheritance, ²  you must wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven ³  – do not forget! ⁴ 

Joshua read aloud every commandment Moses had given ¹  before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, children, and resident foreigners who lived among them. ² 

Moses the Lord’s servant passed on the Lord’s commands to Joshua, and Joshua did as he was told. He did not ignore any of the commands the Lord had given Moses. ¹ 

The Lord made them secure, ¹  in fulfillment of all he had solemnly promised their ancestors. ²  None of their enemies could resist them. ³ 

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies. There were about fifteen thousand survivors from the army of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand sword-wielding soldiers had been killed. ¹ 

She should not drink ¹  anything that the grapevine produces. She must not drink wine or beer, and she must not eat any food that will make her ritually unclean. ²  She should obey everything I commanded her to do.”

The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed. ¹ 

I chose your ancestor ¹  from all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer sacrifice on my altar, to burn incense, and to bear the ephod before me. I gave to your ancestor’s house all the fire offerings made by the Israelites.

Eli ¹  said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely ²  if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”

Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

But today you have rejected your God who saves you from all your trouble and distress. You have said, “No! ¹  Appoint a king over us.” Now take your positions before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.’”

When the men ¹  arrived after David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women from all the cities of Israel came out singing and dancing to meet King Saul. They were happy as they played their tambourines and three-stringed instruments. ² 

Locate precisely all the places where he hides and return to me with dependable information. ¹  Then I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will find him ²  among all the thousands of Judah.”

Now David had been thinking, ¹  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

David replied to Recab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered my life from all adversity,

and during the time when I appointed judges to lead my people Israel. Instead, I will give you relief ¹  from all your enemies. The Lord declares ²  to you that he himself ³  will build a dynastic house ⁴  for you.

His royal court was so large because ¹  he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River from Tiphsah ²  to Gaza; he was at peace with all his neighbors. ³ 

He told David, ¹  ‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from all the tribes of Israel to build a temple in which to live. ²  But I have chosen David to lead my people Israel.’