Then I asked the angelic messenger ¹  who was speaking with me, “What are these, sir?”

Nevertheless the Lord will evict her and shove her fortifications ¹  into the sea – she will be consumed by fire.

“But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings ¹  despicable.

Then I bowed down and worshiped the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right path to find the granddaughter ¹  of my master’s brother for his son.

Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, ¹  until I come to my lord at Seir.”

Then Judah approached him and said, “My lord, please allow your servant to speak a word with you. ¹  Please do not get angry with your servant, ²  for you are just like Pharaoh. ³ 

When that year was over, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from our ¹  lord that the money is used up and the livestock and the animals belong to our lord. Nothing remains before our lord except our bodies and our land.

and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ¹  go among us, for we ²  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

My lord should not pay attention to this wicked man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means ‘fool,’ and he is indeed foolish! ¹  But I, your servant, did not see the servants my lord sent. ² 

“Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live, it is the Lord who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal.

So your servant said, ‘May the word of my lord the king be my security, for my lord the king is like the angel of God when it comes to deciding between right and wrong! May the Lord your God be with you!’”

But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the Lord lives and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether dead or alive, ¹  there I ²  will be as well!”

He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ¹  Jerusalem! ²  Please don’t call it to mind!

Has my master the king authorized this without informing your servants ¹  who should succeed my master the king on his throne?” ² 

Joab replied, “May the Lord make his army ¹  a hundred times larger! My master, O king, do not all of them serve my master? Why does my master want to do this? Why bring judgment on Israel?” ² 

Say, ‘Mountains of Israel, ¹  Hear the word of the sovereign Lord! ²  This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am bringing ³  a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ 

Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer! The word I speak will come to pass, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

“Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you coming to seek me? As surely as I live, I will not allow you to seek me, ¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’

Say to the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says: You said “Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile.

therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the sovereign Lord: This is what the sovereign Lord says to the mountains and hills, the ravines and valleys, and to the desolate ruins and the abandoned cities that have become prey and an object of derision to the rest of the nations round about –