1 Kings 20 Cross References - BBE

¹ Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together, and thirty-two kings with him, and horses and carriages of war; he went up and made war on Samaria, shutting it in. ² And he sent representatives into the town to Ahab, king of Israel; ³ And they said to him, Ben-hadad says, Your silver and your gold are mine; and your wives and children are mine. ⁴ And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As you say, my lord king, I am yours with all I have. ⁵ Then the representatives came back again, and said, These are the words of Ben-hadad: I sent to you saying, Give up to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children; ⁶ But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, to make a search through your house and the houses of your people, and everything which is pleasing in your eyes they will take away in their hands. ⁷ Then the king of Israel sent for all the responsible men of the land, and said, Now will you take note and see the evil purpose of this man: he sent for my wives and my children, my silver and my gold, and I did not keep them back. ⁸ And all the responsible men and the people said to him, Do not give attention to him or do what he says. ⁹ So he said to the representatives of Ben-hadad, Say to my lord the king, All the orders you sent the first time I will do; but this thing I may not do. And the representatives went back with this answer. ¹⁰ Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if there is enough of the dust of Samaria for all the people at my feet to take some in their hands. ¹¹ And the king of Israel said in answer, Say to him, The time for loud talk is not when a man is putting on his arms, but when he is taking them off. ¹² Now when this answer was given to Ben-hadad, he was drinking with the kings in the tents, and he said to his men, Take up your positions. So they put themselves in position for attacking the town. ¹³ Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel, and said, The Lord says, Have you seen all this great army? See, I will give it into your hands today, and you will see that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, The Lord says, By the servants of the chiefs who are over the divisions of the land. Then he said, By whom is the fighting to be started? And he made answer, By you. ¹⁵ Then he got together the servants of all the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land, two hundred and thirty-two of them; and after them, he got together all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand. ¹⁶ And in the middle of the day they went out. But Ben-hadad was drinking in the tents with the thirty-two kings who were helping him. ¹⁷ And the servants of the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land went forward first; and when Ben-hadad sent out, they gave him the news, saying, Men have come out from Samaria. ¹⁸ And he said, If they have come out for peace, take them living, and if they have come out for war, take them living. ¹⁹ So the servants of the chiefs of the divisions of the land went out of the town, with the army coming after them. ²⁰ And every one of them put his man to death, and the Aramaeans went in flight with Israel after them; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got away safely on a horse with his horsemen. ²¹ And the king of Israel went out and took the horses and the war-carriages, and made great destruction among the Aramaeans. ²² Then the prophet came up to the king of Israel, and said to him, Now make yourself strong, and take care what you do, or a year from now the king of Aram will come up against you again. ²³ Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their god is a god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we: but if we make an attack on them in the lowlands, we will certainly be stronger than they. ²⁴ This is what you have to do: take away the kings from their positions, and put captains in their places; ²⁵ And get together another army like the one which came to destruction, horse for horse, and carriage for carriage; and let us make war on them in the lowlands, and certainly we will be stronger than they. And he gave ear to what they said, and did so. ²⁶ So, a year later, Ben-hadad got the Aramaeans together and went up to Aphek to make war on Israel. ²⁷ And the children of Israel got themselves together, and food was made ready and they went against them; the tents of the children of Israel were like two little flocks of goats before them, but all the country was full of the Aramaeans. ²⁸ And a man of God came up and said to the king of Israel, The Lord says, Because the Aramaeans have said, The Lord is a god of the hills and not of the valleys; I will give all this great army into your hands, and you will see that I am the Lord. ²⁹ Now the two armies kept their positions facing one another for seven days. And on the seventh day the fight was started; and the children of Israel put to the sword a hundred thousand Aramaean footmen in one day. ³⁰ But the rest went in flight to Aphek, into the town, where a wall came down on the twenty-seven thousand who were still living. And Ben-hadad went in flight into the town, into an inner room. ³¹ Then his servants said to him, It is said that the kings of Israel are full of mercy: let us then put on haircloth, and cords on our heads, and go to the king of Israel; it may be that he will give you your life. ³² So they put on haircloth, and cords on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant Ben-hadad says, Let me now keep my life. And he said, Is he still living? he is my brother. ³³ Now the men took it as a sign, and quickly took up his words; and they said, Ben-hadad is your brother. Then he said, Go and get him. So Ben-hadad came out to him and he made him get up into his carriage. ³⁴ And Ben-hadad said to him, The towns my father took from your father I will give back; and you may make streets for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. And as for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So he made an agreement with him and let him go. ³⁵ And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbour by the word of the Lord, Give me a wound. But the man would not. ³⁶ Then he said to him, Because you have not given ear to the voice of the Lord, straight away when you have gone from me a lion will put you to death. And when he had gone, straight away a lion came rushing at him and put him to death. ³⁷ Then he came across another man, and said, Give me a wound. And the man gave him a blow wounding him. ³⁸ So the prophet went away, and pulling his head-band over his eyes to keep his face covered, took his place by the road waiting for the king. ³⁹ And when the king went by, crying out to him he said, Your servant went out into the fight; and a man came out to me with another man and said, Keep this man: if by any chance he gets away, your life will be the price of his life, or you will have to give a talent of silver in payment. ⁴⁰ But while your servant was turning this way and that, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him, You are responsible; you have given the decision against yourself. ⁴¹ Then he quickly took the head-band from his eyes; and the king of Israel saw that he was one of the prophets. ⁴² And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord: Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people. ⁴³ Then the king of Israel went back to his house, bitter and angry, and came to Samaria.

¹ Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, ² They made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela which is Zoar. ³ All these came together in the valley of Siddim which is the Salt Sea. ⁴ For twelve years they were under the rule of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his control. ⁵ And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

¹⁴ And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan. ¹⁵ And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus. ¹⁶ And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people.

¹⁵ And Rebekah took the fair robes of her oldest son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son:

³⁴ Then Jacob, giving signs of grief, put on haircloth, and went on weeping for his son day after day.

⁷ And I will take you to be my people and I will be your God; and you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

⁵ And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when my hand is stretched out over Egypt, and I take the children of Israel out from among them.

²² And at that time I will make a division between your land and the land of Goshen where my people are, and no flies will be there; so that you may see that I am the Lord over all the earth.

⁸ And all these your servants will come to me, going down on their faces before me and saying, Go out, and all your people with you: and after that I will go out. And he went away from Pharaoh burning with wrath.

⁷ And he took six hundred carriages, all the carriages of Egypt, and captains over all of them.

¹⁸ And the Egyptians will see that I am the Lord, when I get honour over Pharaoh and his war-carriages and his horsemen.

⁹ Egypt said, I will go after them, I will overtake, I will make division of their goods: my desire will have its way with them; my sword will be uncovered, my hand will send destruction on them.

¹² The outcry of the children of Israel has come to my ears: say to them now, At nightfall you will have meat for your food, and in the morning bread in full measure; and you will see that I am the Lord your God.

¹² He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death.

³⁰ If a price is put on his life, let him make payment of whatever price is fixed.

⁸ Then five of you will put to flight a hundred, and a hundred of you will put to flight ten thousand, and all who are against you will be put to death by your swords.

²⁵ And I will send a sword on you to give effect to the punishment of my agreement; and when you come together into your towns I will send disease among you and you will be given up into the hands of your haters.

³⁶ And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them;

¹ When you go out to war against other nations, and come face to face with horses and war-carriages and armies greater in number than yourselves, have no fear of them: for the Lord your God is with you, who took you up out of the land of Egypt.

⁴⁸ For this cause you will become servants to those whom the Lord your God will send against you, without food and drink and clothing, and in need of all things: and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck till he has put an end to you.

⁵² Your towns will be shut in by his armies, till your high walls, in which you put your faith, have come down: his armies will be round your towns, through all your land which the Lord your God has given you.

⁶ You have had no bread, or wine, or strong drink: so that you might see that I am the Lord your God.

²⁷ But for the fear that their haters, uplifted in their pride, might say, Our hand is strong, the Lord has not done all this.

³⁰ How would it be possible for one to overcome a thousand, and two to send ten thousand in flight, if their rock had not let them go, if the Lord had not given them up?

¹¹ Go through the tents and give orders to the people, saying, Get ready a store of food; for in three days you are to go over this river Jordan and take for your heritage the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

¹⁵ Then on the seventh day they got up early, at the dawn of the day, and went round the town in the same way, but that day they went round it seven times.

⁸ O Lord, what am I to say now that Israel have given way before their attackers? ⁹ For when the news comes to the Canaanites and all the people of the land, they will come up, shutting us in and cutting off our name from the earth: and what will you do for the honour of your great name?

⁴ On the south: all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah which is the property of the Zidonians, to Aphek, as far as the limit of the Amorites:

³⁰ And Ummah and Aphek and Rehob; twenty-two towns with their unwalled places.

⁷ And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table: as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there.

³¹ And Asher did not take the land of the people of Acco, or Zidon, or Ahlab, or Achzib, or Helbah, or Aphik, or Rehob, driving them out;

²⁸ And he said to them, Come after me; for the Lord has given the Moabites, your haters, into your hands. So they went down after him and took the crossing-places of Jordan against Moab, and let no one go across.

³ Then the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron war-carriages, and for twenty years he was very cruel to the children of Israel.

¹⁰ Then Barak sent for Zebulun and Naphtali to come to Kedesh; and ten thousand men went up after him, and Deborah went up with him.

⁵ For they came up regularly with their oxen and their tents; they came like the locusts in number; they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land for its destruction.

⁷ And the Lord said to Gideon, By those three hundred who were drinking with their tongues I will give you salvation and give the Midianites into your hands; let the rest of the people go away, every man to his place. ⁸ So they took the vessels of the people, and their horns from their hands, and he sent them away, every man to his tent, keeping only the three hundred; and the tents of Midian were lower down in the valley.

¹⁶ Then separating the three hundred men into three bands, he gave every man a horn, and a vessel in which was a flaming branch.

¹⁶ Then separating the three hundred men into three bands, he gave every man a horn, and a vessel in which was a flaming branch. ¹⁷ And he said to them, Keep your eyes on me, and do what I do; when I come to the outer line of tents, whatever I do, you are to do the same. ¹⁸ At the sound of my horn, and the horns of those who are with me, let your horns be sounded all round the tents, and say, For the Lord and for Gideon. ¹⁹ So Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him came to the outer line of tents, at the start of the middle watch, when the watchmen had only then taken their stations; and the horns were sounded and the vessels broken. ²⁰ So the three bands all gave a loud note on their horns, and when the vessels had been broken, they took the flaming branches in their left hands, and the horns in their right hands ready for blowing, crying out, For the Lord and for Gideon.

²⁰ So the three bands all gave a loud note on their horns, and when the vessels had been broken, they took the flaming branches in their left hands, and the horns in their right hands ready for blowing, crying out, For the Lord and for Gideon. ²¹ Then they made a line round the tents, every man in his place; and all the army, awaking from sleep, came running out, and with loud cries went in flight. ²² And the three hundred gave a loud note on their horns, and every man's sword was turned by the Lord against his brother all through the army; and the army went in flight as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zeredah, to the edge of Abel-meholah by Tabbath. ²³ And the men of Israel came together from Naphtali and from Asher and all Manasseh, and went after Midian. ²⁴ Then Gideon sent through all the hill-country of Ephraim saying, Come down against Midian, and keep the ways across Jordan before they come. So all the men of Ephraim, massing themselves together, kept the ways across Jordan. ²⁵ And they took the two chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they put Oreb to death at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they put to death at the place of the grape-crushing in Zeeb, and they went after Midian; but the heads of Oreb and Zeeb they took across Jordan to Gideon.

⁷ Now Jotham, on hearing of it, went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and crying out with a loud voice said to them, Give ear to me, you townsmen of Shechem, so that God may give ear to you. ⁸ One day the trees went out to make a king for themselves; and they said to the olive-tree, Be king over us. ⁹ But the olive-tree said to them, Am I to give up my wealth of oil, by which men give honour to God, and go waving over the trees? ¹⁰ Then the trees said to the fig-tree, You come and be king over us. ¹¹ But the fig-tree said to them, Am I to give up my sweet taste and my good fruit and go waving over the trees? ¹² Then the trees said to the vine, You come and be king over us. ¹³ But the vine said to them, Am I to give up my wine, which makes glad God and men, to go waving over the trees? ¹⁴ Then all the trees said to the thorn, You come and be king over us. ¹⁵ And the thorn said to the trees, If it is truly your desire to make me your king, then come and put your faith in my shade; and if not, may fire come out of the thorn, burning up the cedars of Lebanon. ¹⁶ So now, if you have done truly and uprightly in making Abimelech king, and if you have done well to Jerubbaal and his house in reward for the work of his hands; ¹⁷ {\I For my father made war for you, and put his life in danger, and made you free from the hands of Midian; ¹⁸ And you have gone against my father's family this day, and have put to death his sons, even seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his servant-wife, king over the townsmen of Shechem because he is your brother;} ¹⁹ If then you have done what is true and upright to Jerubbaal and his family this day, may you have joy in Abimelech, and may he have joy in you; ²⁰ But if not, may fire come out from Abimelech, burning up the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out from the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, for the destruction of Abimelech.

¹¹ Then three thousand of the men of Judah went down to the crack of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Is it not clear to you that the Philistines are our rulers? What is this you have done to us? And he said to them, I only did to them as they did to me. ¹² Then they said to him, We have come down to take you and give you up into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Give me your oath that you will not make an attack on me yourselves. ¹³ And they said, No; we will take you and give you up into their hands, but truly we will not put you to death. So knotting two new cords round him they took him up from the rock.

³ Say no more words of pride; let not uncontrolled sayings come out of your mouths: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, by him acts are judged. ⁴ The bows of the men of war are broken, and the feeble are clothed with strength.

¹ Now at that time the Philistines came together to make war against Israel, and the men of Israel went out to war against the Philistines and took up their position at the side of Eben-ezer: and the Philistines put their forces in position in Aphek.

⁸ Trouble is ours! Who will give us salvation from the hands of these great gods? These are the gods who sent all sorts of blows on the Egyptians in the waste land.

¹² And one of the people of that place said in answer, And who is their father? So it became a common saying, Is even Saul among the prophets?

⁵ And the Philistines came together to make war on Israel, three thousand war-carriages and six thousand horsemen and an army of people like the sands of the sea in number: they came up and took up their position in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven.

⁵ And the Philistines came together to make war on Israel, three thousand war-carriages and six thousand horsemen and an army of people like the sands of the sea in number: they came up and took up their position in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw the danger they were in, for the people were troubled, they took cover in cracks in the hillsides and in the woods and in rocks and holes and hollows.

⁶ When the men of Israel saw the danger they were in, for the people were troubled, they took cover in cracks in the hillsides and in the woods and in rocks and holes and hollows. ⁷ And a great number of the people had gone over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people went after him shaking in fear.

⁷ And a great number of the people had gone over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people went after him shaking in fear. ⁸ And he went on waiting there for seven days, the time fixed by Samuel: but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were starting to go away from him.

¹⁹ Now there was no iron-worker in all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, For fear the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears: ²⁰ But all the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to get their ploughs and blades and axes and hooks made sharp; ²¹ For they had instruments for putting an edge on their ploughs and blades and forks and axes, and for putting iron points on their ox-driving rods.

² And Saul was still waiting in the farthest part of Geba, under the fruit-tree in Migron: there were about six hundred men with him;

⁶ And Jonathan said to his young servant who had his arms, Come, let us go over to the armies of these men who have no circumcision: it may be that the Lord will give us help, for there is no limit to his power; the Lord is able to give salvation by a great army or by a small band.

¹¹ And they let the Philistine force see the two of them: and the Philistines said, Look! the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have taken cover. ¹² And the armed men of the force gave Jonathan and his servant their answer, saying, Come up here to us, and we will let you see something. Then Jonathan said to his servant, Come up after me: for the Lord has given them up into the hands of Israel.

¹² And the armed men of the force gave Jonathan and his servant their answer, saying, Come up here to us, and we will let you see something. Then Jonathan said to his servant, Come up after me: for the Lord has given them up into the hands of Israel. ¹³ And Jonathan went up, gripping with his hands and his feet, his servant going up after him; and the Philistines gave way before Jonathan when he made an attack on them, and his servant put them to death after him.

¹³ And Jonathan went up, gripping with his hands and his feet, his servant going up after him; and the Philistines gave way before Jonathan when he made an attack on them, and his servant put them to death after him. ¹⁴ And at their first attack, Jonathan and his servant put to the sword about twenty men, all inside the space of half an acre of land. ¹⁵ And there was great fear in the tents and in the field and among all the men of the armed force, and the attackers were shaking with fear; even the earth was moved with a great shaking and there was a fear as from God.

²⁰ And Saul and all the people with him came together and went forward to the fight: and every man's sword was turned against the man at his side, and there was a very great noise. ²¹ Then the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines for some time, and had gone up with them to their tents, turning round were joined to those who were with Saul and Jonathan. ²² And all the men of Israel who had taken cover in the hill-country of Ephraim, hearing that the Philistines had been put to flight, went after them, attacking them.

⁸ He took Agag, king of the Amalekites, prisoner, and put all the people to the sword without mercy. ⁹ But Saul and the people did not put Agag to death, and they kept the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat beasts and the lambs, and whatever was good, not desiring to put them to the curse: but everything which was bad and of no use they put to the curse.

⁹ But Saul and the people did not put Agag to death, and they kept the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat beasts and the lambs, and whatever was good, not desiring to put them to the curse: but everything which was bad and of no use they put to the curse. ¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Samuel,

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Samuel, ¹¹ It is no longer my pleasure for Saul to be king; for he is turned back from going in my ways, and has not done my orders. And Samuel was very sad, crying to the Lord in prayer all night.

¹¹ It is no longer my pleasure for Saul to be king; for he is turned back from going in my ways, and has not done my orders. And Samuel was very sad, crying to the Lord in prayer all night. ¹² And early in the morning he got up and went to Saul; and word was given to Samuel that Saul had come to Carmel and put up a pillar, and had gone from there down to Gilgal. ¹³ And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, May the blessing of the Lord be with you: I have done what was ordered by the Lord. ¹⁴ And Samuel said, What then is this sound of the crying of sheep and the noise of oxen which comes to my ears? ¹⁵ And Saul said, They have taken them from the Amalekites: for the people have kept the best of the sheep and of the oxen as an offering to the Lord your God; all the rest we have given up to destruction. ¹⁶ Then Samuel said to Saul, Say no more! Let me give you word of what the Lord has said to me this night. And he said to him, Say on. ¹⁷ And Samuel said, Though you may seem little to yourself, are you not head of the tribes of Israel? for the Lord with the holy oil made you king over Israel, ¹⁸ And the Lord sent you on a journey and said, Go and put to the curse those sinners, the Amalekites, fighting against them till every one is dead. ¹⁹ Why then did you not do the orders of the Lord, but by violently taking their goods did evil in the eyes of the Lord? ²⁰ And Saul said, Truly, I have done the orders of the Lord and have gone the way the Lord sent me; I have taken Agag, the king of Amalek, and have given the Amalekites up to destruction.

²² And Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in offerings and burned offerings as in the doing of his orders? Truly, to do his pleasure is better than to make offerings, and to give ear to him than the fat of sheep. ²³ For to go against his orders is like the sin of those who make use of secret arts, and pride is like giving worship to images. Because you have put away from you the word of the Lord, he has put you from your place as king.

¹⁶ And the Philistine came near every morning and evening for forty days.

⁴⁴ And the Philistine said to David, Come here to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.

⁴⁴ And the Philistine said to David, Come here to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. ⁴⁵ Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the Lord of armies, the God of the armies of Israel on which you have put shame. ⁴⁶ This day the Lord will give you up into my hands, and I will overcome you, and take your head off you; and I will give the bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth today, so that all the earth may see that Israel has a God; ⁴⁷ And all these people who are here today may see that the Lord does not give salvation by sword and spear: for the fight is the Lord's, and he will give you up into our hands.

⁵⁰ So David overcame the Philistine with his leather band and a stone, wounding the Philistine and causing his death: but David had no sword in his hand.

⁵² And the men of Israel and of Judah got up, and gave a cry, and went after the Philistines as far as Gath and the town doors of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines were falling down by the road from Shaaraim all the way to Gath and Ekron.

³⁶ And Abigail went back to Nabal; and he was feasting in his house like a king; and Nabal's heart was full of joy, for he had taken much wine; so she said nothing to him till dawn came.

¹ Now the Philistines got all their army together at Aphek: and the Israelites put their forces in position by the fountain in Jezreel.

¹⁶ And when he had taken him down, they saw them all, seated about on all sides, feasting and drinking among all the mass of goods which they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah. ¹⁷ And David went on fighting them from evening till the evening of the day after; and not one of them got away but only four hundred young men who went in flight on camels.

¹⁶ And every one got the other by the head, driving his sword into the other's side, so they all went down together: and that place was named the Field of Sides, and it is in Gibeon.

³¹ And David said to Joab and all the people who were with him, Go in grief and put haircloth about you, in sorrow for Abner. And King David went after the dead body.

¹⁸ And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and David put to the sword the men of seven hundred Aramaean war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and Shobach, the captain of the army, was wounded, and came to his death there.

¹ Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, David sent Joab and his servants and all Israel with him; and they made waste the land of the children of Ammon, and took up their position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But David was still at Jerusalem.

¹ And the Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan came to him and said, There were two men in the same town: one a man of great wealth, and the other a poor man. ² The man of wealth had great numbers of flocks and herds; ³ But the poor man had only one little she-lamb, which he had got and taken care of: from its birth it had been with him like one of his children; his meat was its food, and from his cup it took its drink, resting in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴ Now a traveller came to the house of the man of wealth, but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to make a meal for the traveller who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who had come. ⁵ And David was full of wrath against that man; and he said to Nathan, By the living Lord, death is the right punishment for the man who has done this: ⁶ And he will have to give back four times the value of the lamb, because he has done this and because he had no pity. ⁷ And Nathan said to David, You are that man. The Lord God of Israel says, I made you king over Israel, putting holy oil on you, and I kept you safe from the hands of Saul;

¹⁹ And Tamar, in her grief, put dust on her head; and she put her hand on her head and went away crying loudly.

²⁸ Now Absalom had given orders to his servants, saying, Now take note when Amnon's heart is glad with wine; and when I say to you, Make an attack on Amnon, then put him to death without fear: have I not given you orders? be strong and without fear.

² And Joab sent to Tekoa and got from there a wise woman, and said to her, Now make yourself seem like one given up to grief, and put on the clothing of sorrow, not using any sweet oil for your body, but looking like one who for a long time has been weeping for the dead:

⁵ And the king said to her, What is your trouble? And her answer was, Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead. ⁶ And I had two sons, and the two of them had a fight in the field, and there was no one to come between them, and one with a blow put the other to death. ⁷ And now all the family is turned against me, your servant, saying, Give up him who was the cause of his brother's death, so that we may put him to death in payment for the life of his brother, whose life he took; and we will put an end to the one who will get the heritage: so they will put out my last burning coal, and my husband will have no name or offspring on the face of the earth.

¹² Then we will come on him in some place, wherever he may be, falling on him as the dew comes on the earth: and of him and all the men who are with him not one will get away with his life. ¹³ And if he has gone into some town, then let all Israel take strong cords to that town, and we will have it pulled into the valley, till not one small stone is to be seen there.

¹⁴ And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let us come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.

¹ Then Solomon sent for all the responsible men of Israel, and all the chiefs of the tribes, and the heads of families of the children of Israel, to come to him in Jerusalem to take the ark of the Lord's agreement up out of the town of David, which is Zion.

¹ Then a man of God came from Judah by the order of the Lord to Beth-el, where Jeroboam was by the altar, burning offerings.

¹ Then a man of God came from Judah by the order of the Lord to Beth-el, where Jeroboam was by the altar, burning offerings. ² And by the order of the Lord he made an outcry against the altar, saying, O altar, altar, the Lord has said, From the seed of David will come a child, named Josiah, and on you he will put to death the priests of the high places, who are burning offerings on you, and men's bones will be burned on you.

¹⁷ For the Lord said to me, You are not to take food or water there, or go back again by the way you came. ¹⁸ Then he said to him, I am a prophet like you; and an angel said to me by the word of the Lord, Take him back with you and give him food and water. But he said false words to him.

²¹ And crying out to the man of God who came from Judah, he said, The Lord says, Because you have gone against the voice of the Lord, and have not done as you were ordered by the Lord, ²² But have come back, and have taken food and water in this place where he said you were to take no food or water; your dead body will not be put to rest with your fathers. ²³ Now after the meal he made ready the ass for him, for the prophet whom he had taken back. ²⁴ And he went on his way; but on the road a lion came rushing at him and put him to death; and his dead body was stretched in the road with the ass by its side, and the lion was there by the body.

²⁶ Then the prophet who had made him come back, hearing it, said, It is the man of God, who went against the word of the Lord; that is why the Lord has given him to the lion to be wounded to death, as the Lord said.

² And Jeroboam said to his wife, Now come, put on different clothing so that you may not seem to be the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; see, Ahijah is there, the prophet who said I would be king over this people.

²³ For they made high places and upright stones and wood pillars on every high hill and under every green tree;

¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and gold which was still stored in the Lord's house, and in the king's house, and sent them, in the care of his servants, to Ben-hadad, son of Tabrimmon, son of Rezon, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying,

²⁰ So Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth as far as all the land of Naphtali.

⁷ And the Lord sent his word against Baasha and his family by the mouth of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, because of all the evil he did in the eyes of the Lord, moving him to wrath by the work of his hands, because he was like the family of Jeroboam, and because he put it to death.

⁹ And his servant Zimri, captain of half his war-carriages, made secret designs against him: now he was in Tirzah, drinking hard in the house of Arza, controller of the king's house in Tirzah.

²⁴ He got the hill Samaria from Shemer for the price of two talents of silver, and he made a town there, building it on the hill and naming it Samaria, after Shemer the owner of the hill.

¹⁸ And she said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, O man of God? have you come to put God in mind of my sin, and to put my son to death?

³⁶ Then at the time of the offering, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be seen this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things by your order. ³⁷ Give me an answer, O Lord, give me an answer, so that this people may see that you are God, and that you have made their hearts come back again.

⁴⁴ And the seventh time he said, I see a cloud coming up out of the sea, as small as a man's hand. Then he said, Go up and say to Ahab, Get your carriage ready and go down or the rain will keep you back.

² Then Jezebel sent a servant to Elijah, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.

¹⁰ And he said, I have been burning for the honour of the Lord, the God of armies; for the children of Israel have not kept your agreement; they have made destruction of your altars, and have put your prophets to death with the sword: till I, even I, am the only one living; and now they are attempting to take away my life.

¹⁸ But I will keep safe seven thousand in Israel, all those whose knees have not been bent to Baal, and whose mouths have given him no kisses.

¹ Now Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got all his army together, and thirty-two kings with him, and horses and carriages of war; he went up and made war on Samaria, shutting it in.

³ And they said to him, Ben-hadad says, Your silver and your gold are mine; and your wives and children are mine. ⁴ And the king of Israel sent him an answer saying, As you say, my lord king, I am yours with all I have. ⁵ Then the representatives came back again, and said, These are the words of Ben-hadad: I sent to you saying, Give up to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children; ⁶ But I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, to make a search through your house and the houses of your people, and everything which is pleasing in your eyes they will take away in their hands.

¹⁰ Then Ben-hadad sent to him, saying, May the gods' punishment be on me if there is enough of the dust of Samaria for all the people at my feet to take some in their hands. ¹¹ And the king of Israel said in answer, Say to him, The time for loud talk is not when a man is putting on his arms, but when he is taking them off. ¹² Now when this answer was given to Ben-hadad, he was drinking with the kings in the tents, and he said to his men, Take up your positions. So they put themselves in position for attacking the town. ¹³ Then a prophet came up to Ahab, king of Israel, and said, The Lord says, Have you seen all this great army? See, I will give it into your hands today, and you will see that I am the Lord. ¹⁴ And Ahab said, By whom? And he said, The Lord says, By the servants of the chiefs who are over the divisions of the land. Then he said, By whom is the fighting to be started? And he made answer, By you. ¹⁵ Then he got together the servants of all the chiefs who were over the divisions of the land, two hundred and thirty-two of them; and after them, he got together all the people, all the children of Israel, seven thousand. ¹⁶ And in the middle of the day they went out. But Ben-hadad was drinking in the tents with the thirty-two kings who were helping him.

¹⁹ So the servants of the chiefs of the divisions of the land went out of the town, with the army coming after them. ²⁰ And every one of them put his man to death, and the Aramaeans went in flight with Israel after them; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got away safely on a horse with his horsemen.

²² Then the prophet came up to the king of Israel, and said to him, Now make yourself strong, and take care what you do, or a year from now the king of Aram will come up against you again.

²² Then the prophet came up to the king of Israel, and said to him, Now make yourself strong, and take care what you do, or a year from now the king of Aram will come up against you again. ²³ Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their god is a god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we: but if we make an attack on them in the lowlands, we will certainly be stronger than they.

²³ Then the king of Aram's servants said to him, Their god is a god of the hills; that is why they were stronger than we: but if we make an attack on them in the lowlands, we will certainly be stronger than they. ²⁴ This is what you have to do: take away the kings from their positions, and put captains in their places;

²⁶ So, a year later, Ben-hadad got the Aramaeans together and went up to Aphek to make war on Israel.

²⁸ And a man of God came up and said to the king of Israel, The Lord says, Because the Aramaeans have said, The Lord is a god of the hills and not of the valleys; I will give all this great army into your hands, and you will see that I am the Lord.

³⁰ But the rest went in flight to Aphek, into the town, where a wall came down on the twenty-seven thousand who were still living. And Ben-hadad went in flight into the town, into an inner room. ³¹ Then his servants said to him, It is said that the kings of Israel are full of mercy: let us then put on haircloth, and cords on our heads, and go to the king of Israel; it may be that he will give you your life.

³⁴ And Ben-hadad said to him, The towns my father took from your father I will give back; and you may make streets for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria. And as for me, at the price of this agreement you will let me go. So he made an agreement with him and let him go. ³⁵ And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbour by the word of the Lord, Give me a wound. But the man would not.

³⁷ Then he came across another man, and said, Give me a wound. And the man gave him a blow wounding him. ³⁸ So the prophet went away, and pulling his head-band over his eyes to keep his face covered, took his place by the road waiting for the king.

³⁸ So the prophet went away, and pulling his head-band over his eyes to keep his face covered, took his place by the road waiting for the king. ³⁹ And when the king went by, crying out to him he said, Your servant went out into the fight; and a man came out to me with another man and said, Keep this man: if by any chance he gets away, your life will be the price of his life, or you will have to give a talent of silver in payment.

⁴² And he said to him, These are the words of the Lord: Because you have let go from your hands the man whom I had put to the curse, your life will be taken for his life, and your people for his people.

⁴ So Ahab came into his house bitter and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, I will not give you the heritage of my fathers. And stretching himself on the bed with his face turned away, he would take no food.

²⁷ Hearing these words, Ahab, in great grief, put haircloth on his flesh and went without food, sleeping in haircloth, and going about quietly. ²⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ²⁹ Do you see how Ahab has made himself low before me? because he has made himself low before me, I will not send the evil in his life-time, but in his son's time I will send the evil on his family.

⁸ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is still one man by whom we may get directions from the Lord, Micaiah, son of Imlah; but I have no love for him, for he is a prophet of evil to me and not of good. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.

²⁵ And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

³⁰ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will make a change in my clothing, so that I do not seem to be the king, and will go into the fight; but do you put on your robes. So the king of Israel made a change in his dress and went into the fight. ³¹ Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.

³¹ Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel. ³² So when the captains of the war-carriages saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Truly, this is the king of Israel; and turning against him, they came round him, but Jehoshaphat gave a cry. ³³ And when the captains of the war-carriages saw that he was not the king of Israel, they went back from going after him. ³⁴ And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded. ³⁵ But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans, and the floor of the carriage was covered with the blood from his wound, and by evening he was dead. ³⁶ And about sundown a cry went up from all parts of the army, saying, Let every man go back to his town and his country, for the king is dead. ³⁷ And they came to Samaria, and put the king's body to rest in Samaria.

³ And at Beth-el the sons of the prophets came out to Elisha and said, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is going to take away your master from over you today? And he said, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more. ⁴ Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. But he said, As the Lord is living and as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they went on to Jericho. ⁵ And at Jericho the sons of the prophets came up to Elisha and said to him, Has it been made clear to you that the Lord is going to take away your master from over you today? And he said in answer, Yes, I have knowledge of it: say no more. ⁶ Then Elijah said to him, Come no farther, for the Lord has sent me to Jordan. But he said, As the Lord is living and as your soul is living, I will not be parted from you. So they went on together. ⁷ And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went out and took their places facing them a long way off, while the two of them were by the edge of Jordan.

¹⁵ And when the sons of the prophets who were facing him at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha. And they came out to him, and went down on the earth before him.

¹⁸ And this will be only a small thing to the Lord: in addition he will give the Moabites into your hands.

²⁴ But when they came to the tents of Israel, the Israelites came out and made a violent attack on the Moabites, so that they went in flight before them; and they went forward still attacking them;

¹ Now a certain woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, came crying to Elisha and said, Your servant my husband is dead; and to your knowledge he was a worshipper of the Lord; but now, the creditor has come to take my two children as servants in payment of his debt.

³⁸ And Elisha went back to Gilgal, now there was very little food in the land; and the sons of the prophets were seated before him. And he said to his servant, Put the great pot on the fire, and make soup for the sons of the prophets.

⁷ But the king of Israel, after reading the letter, was greatly troubled and said, Am I God, to give death and life? why does this man send a leper to me to be made well? is it not clear that he is looking for a cause of war?

¹³ Then his servants came to him and said, If the prophet had given you orders to do some great thing, would you not have done it? how much more then, when he says to you, Be washed and become clean?

⁸ At that time the king of Aram was making war against Israel; and he had a meeting with the chiefs of his army and said, I will be waiting in secret in some named place. ⁹ And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Take care to keep away from that place, for the Aramaeans are waiting there in secret. ¹⁰ So the king of Israel sent to the place where the man of God had said there was danger, and kept clear of it more than once. ¹¹ And at this, the mind of the king of Aram was greatly troubled, and he sent for his servants and said to them, Will you not make clear to me which of us is helping the king of Israel? ¹² And one of them said, Not one of us, my lord king; but Elisha, the prophet in Israel, gives the king of Israel news of the words you say even in your bedroom.

¹² And one of them said, Not one of us, my lord king; but Elisha, the prophet in Israel, gives the king of Israel news of the words you say even in your bedroom.

²⁴ Now after this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got together all his army and went up to make an attack on Samaria, shutting the town in on all sides with his forces.

²⁴ Now after this, Ben-hadad, king of Aram, got together all his army and went up to make an attack on Samaria, shutting the town in on all sides with his forces. ²⁵ And they became very short of food in Samaria; for they kept it shut in till the price of an ass's head was eighty shekels of silver, and a small measure of doves' droppings was five shekels of silver. ²⁶ And when the king of Israel was going by on the wall, a woman came crying out to him, and said, Help! my lord king. ²⁷ And he said, If the Lord does not give you help, where am I to get help for you? from the grain-floor or the grape-crusher? ²⁸ And the king said to her, What is troubling you? And she said in answer, This woman said to me, Give your son to be our food today, and we will have my son tomorrow. ²⁹ So, boiling my son, we had a meal of him; and on the day after I said to her, Now give your son for our food; but she has put her son in a secret place.

¹ Then Elisha said, Give ear to the word of the Lord: the Lord says, Tomorrow, about this time, a measure of good meal will be offered for the price of a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the market-place of Samaria.

⁴ If we say, We will go into the town, there is no food in the town, and we will come to our end there; and if we go on waiting here, death will come to us. Come then, let us give ourselves up to the army of Aram: if they let us go on living, then life will be ours; and if they put us to death, then death will be ours.

⁶ For the Lord had made the sound of carriages and horses, and the noise of a great army, come to the ears of the Aramaeans, so that they said to one another, Truly, the king of Israel has got the kings of the Hittites and of the Egyptians for a price to make an attack on us. ⁷ So they got up and went in flight, in the half light, without their tents or their horses or their asses or any of their goods; they went in flight, fearing for their lives.

⁷ And Elisha came to Damascus; and Ben-hadad, king of Aram, was ill; and they said to him, The man of God has come. ⁸ Then the king said to Hazael, Take an offering with you, and go to see the man of God and get directions from the Lord by him, saying, Am I going to get better from my disease? ⁹ So Hazael went to see him, taking with him forty camels with offerings on their backs of every sort of good thing from Damascus; and when he came before him, he said, Your son Ben-hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to you, saying, Will I get better from this disease? ¹⁰ And Elisha said to him, Go, say to him, You will certainly get better; but the Lord has made it clear to me that only death is before him.

¹² And Hazael said, Why is my lord weeping? Then he said in answer, Because I see the evil which you will do to the children of Israel: burning down their strong towns, putting their young men to death with the sword, smashing their little ones against the stones, and cutting open the women who are with child.

¹⁵ And when he had gone away from there, he came across Jehonadab, the son of Rechab: and he said good-day to him, and said to him, Is your heart true to mine, as mine is to yours? And Jehonadab in answer said, It is; and Jehu said, If it is, give me your hand. And he gave him his hand, and he made him come up into his carriage.

²⁴ Then they went in to make offerings and burned offerings. Now Jehu had put eighty men outside, and said to them, If any man whom I give into your hands gets away, the life of him who lets him go will be the price of his life.

⁷ For out of all his army, Jehoahaz had only fifty horsemen and ten carriages and ten thousand footmen; the king of Aram had given them up to destruction, crushing them like dust.

¹⁷ Then he said; Let the window be open to the east: and he got it open. Then Elisha said, Let the arrow go; and he let it go. And he said, The Lord's arrow of salvation, of salvation over Aram; for you will overcome the Aramaeans in Aphek and put an end to them.

²³ But the Lord was kind to them and had pity on them, caring for them, because of his agreement with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; he would not put them to destruction or send them away from before his face till now.

⁸ Then Amaziah sent representatives to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us have a meeting face to face. ⁹ And Jehoash, king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, saying, The thorn-tree in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son for a wife: and a beast from the woodland in Lebanon went by, crushing the thorn under his feet. ¹⁰ It is true that you have overcome Edom and your heart is uplifted; let that glory be enough for you, and keep in your country; why do you make causes of trouble, putting yourself, and Judah with you, in danger of downfall? ¹¹ But Amaziah gave no attention. So Jehoash, king of Israel, went up, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, came face to face at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah. ¹² And Judah was overcome before Israel, so that they went in flight, every man to his tent.

⁵ Then the king of Assyria went through all the land and came up to Samaria, shutting it in with his forces for three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and took Israel away to Assyria, placing them in Halah and in Habor on the river Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes.

¹⁴ And Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent to Lachish, to the king of Assyria, saying, I have done wrong; give up attacking me, and whatever you put on me I will undergo. And the payment he was to make was fixed by the king of Assyria at three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵ So Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the house of the Lord, and in the king's store-house. ¹⁶ And at that time Hezekiah had the gold from the doors of the Lord's house, and from the door-pillars plated by him, cut off and gave it to the king of Assyria.

³¹ Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me; and everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his fig-tree, and the water of his spring; ³² Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens, a land of oil-giving olives and of honey, so that life and not death may be your fate. Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The Lord will keep us safe.

¹ And on hearing it, King Hezekiah took off his robe, and put on haircloth, and went into the house of the Lord. ² And he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, dressed in haircloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

⁹ And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, he sent representatives to Hezekiah again, saying,

¹² Did the gods of the nations keep safe those on whom my fathers sent destruction, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?

²³ You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods; I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods. ²⁴ I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.

³⁶ So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh.

¹ Then David had discussions with the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds and with every chief.

¹ Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, Joab went out at the head of the armed forces and made waste all the land of the Ammonites and put his men in position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But David was still at Jerusalem. And Joab took Rabbah and made it waste.

¹ And David got together at Jerusalem all the rulers of Israel, the chiefs of the tribes and the captains of the divisions waiting on the king in turn, and the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds and the controllers of all the goods and property of the king and his sons, with the unsexed servants and the great men of war.

¹⁷ And Abijah and his people put them to death with great destruction: five hundred thousand of the best of Israel were put to the sword.

¹¹ And Asa made prayer to the Lord his God and said, Lord, you only are able to give help against the strong to him who has no strength; come to our help, O Lord our God, for our hope is in you, and in your name we have come out against this great army. O Lord, you are our God; let not man's power be greater than yours.

² Then Asa took silver and gold out of the stores of the Lord's house and of the king's store-house, and sent to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying, ³ Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me. ⁴ And Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the store-towns of Naphtali.

⁴ And Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the store-towns of Naphtali.

²⁴ And Micaiah said, Truly, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to keep yourself safe.

³⁰ Now the king of Aram had given orders to the captains of his war-carriages, saying, Make no attack on small or great, but only on the king of Israel.

³³ And a certain man sent an arrow from his bow without thought of its direction, and gave the king of Israel a wound where his breastplate was joined to his clothing; so he said to the driver of his war-carriage, Go to one side and take me away out of the army, for I am badly wounded. ³⁴ But the fight became more violent while the day went on; and the king of Israel was supported in his war-carriage facing the Aramaeans till the evening; and by sundown he was dead.

¹⁴ Then, before all the meeting, the spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite and one of the family of Asaph; ¹⁵ And he said, Give ear, O Judah, and you people of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat: the Lord says to you, Have no fear and do not be troubled on account of this great army; for the fight is not yours but God's. ¹⁶ Go down against them tomorrow: see, they are coming up by the slope of Ziz; at the end of the valley, before the waste land of Jeruel, you will come face to face with them. ¹⁷ There will be no need for you to take up arms in this fight; put yourselves in position, and keep where you are, and you will see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: have no fear and do not be troubled: go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you. ¹⁸ Then Jehoshaphat went down with his face to the earth, and all Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave worship to the Lord, falling down before him. ¹⁹ And the Levites, the children of the Kohathites and the Korahites, got to their feet and gave praise to the Lord, the God of Israel, with a loud voice. ²⁰ And early in the morning they got up and went out to the waste land of Tekoa: and when they were going out, Jehoshaphat took his station and said to them, Give ear to me, O Judah and you people of Jerusalem: have faith in the Lord your God and you will be safe; have faith in his prophets and all will go well for you.

²³ And the children of Ammon and Moab made an attack on the people of Mount Seir with a view to their complete destruction; and when they had put an end to the people of Seir, everyman's hand was turned against his neighbour for his destruction. ²⁴ And Judah came to the watchtower of the waste land, and looking in the direction of the army, they saw only dead bodies stretched on the earth; no living man was to be seen. ²⁵ And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their goods from them, they saw beasts in great numbers, and wealth and clothing and things of value, more than they were able to take away; all this they took for themselves, and they were three days getting it away, there was so much.

⁸ But go yourself, and be strong in war; God will not let you go down before those who are fighting against you; for God has power to give help or to send you down before your attackers.

¹¹ Then Amaziah took heart, and went out at the head of his people and came to the Valley of Salt, where he put to death ten thousand of the children of Seir;

⁶ For Pekah, the son of Remaliah, in one day put to death a hundred and twenty thousand men of Judah, all of them good fighting-men; because they had given up the Lord, the God of their fathers.

⁷ Be strong and take heart; have no fear, and do not be troubled on account of the king of Assyria and all the great army with him: for there is a greater with us. ⁸ With him is an arm of flesh; but we have the Lord our God, helping us and fighting for us. And the people put their faith in what Hezekiah, king of Judah, said.

¹³ Have you no knowledge of what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of every land? were the gods of the nations of those lands able to keep their land from falling into my hands? ¹⁴ Who was there among all the gods of those nations, which my fathers put to destruction, who was able to keep his people safe from my hands? and is it possible that your God will keep you safe from my hands? ¹⁵ So do not be tricked by Hezekiah or let him get you to do this, and do not put any faith in what he says: for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to keep his people safe from my hands, or the hands of my fathers: how much less will your God keep you safe from my hands! ¹⁶ And his servants said even more against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah. ¹⁷ And he sent letters, in addition, to put shame on the Lord, the God of Israel, and to say evil against him, saying, As the gods of the nations of other lands have not been able to keep their people safe from my hands, no more will the God of Hezekiah keep his people safe from my hands. ¹⁸ These things they said, crying out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, with the purpose of troubling them and putting fear into them, so that they might take the town; ¹⁹ Talking of the God of Jerusalem as if he was like the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands.

¹² Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of heaven, all peace;

²⁷ And twenty gold basins, of a thousand darics, and two vessels of the best bright brass, equal in value to gold.

¹ Now when Mordecai saw what was done, pulling off his robe, he put on haircloth, with dust on his head, and went out into the middle of the town, crying out with a loud and bitter cry. ² And he came even before the king's doorway; for no one might come inside the king's door clothed in haircloth. ³ And in every part of the kingdom, wherever the king's word and his order came, there was great sorrow among the Jews, and weeping and crying and going without food; and numbers of them were stretched on the earth covered with dust and haircloth.

¹⁶ Go, get together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and go without food for me, taking no food or drink night or day for three days: and I and my women will do the same; and so I will go in to the king, which is against the law: and if death is to be my fate, then let it come.

¹³ But all this is nothing to me while I see Mordecai the Jew seated by the king's doorway.

¹² And Mordecai came back to the king's doorway. But Haman went quickly back to his house, sad and with his head covered. ¹³ And Haman gave his wife Zeresh and all his friends an account of what had taken place. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, If Mordecai, who is starting to get the better of you, is of the seed of the Jews, you will not be able to do anything against him, but you will certainly go down before him.

⁴ And the Satan said in answer to the Lord, Skin for skin, all a man has he will give for his life.

⁸ And he took a broken bit of a pot, and, seated in the dust, was rubbing himself with the sharp edge of it.

² For wrath is the cause of death to the foolish, and he who has no wisdom comes to his end through passion.

¹⁶ With him are strength and wise designs; he who is guided into error, together with his guide, are in his hands; ¹⁷ He takes away the wisdom of the wise guides, and makes judges foolish;

¹⁷ He takes away the wisdom of the wise guides, and makes judges foolish; ¹⁸ He undoes the chains of kings, and puts his band on them;

¹⁸ He undoes the chains of kings, and puts his band on them; ¹⁹ He makes priests prisoners, overturning those in safe positions;

⁶ It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness against you.

³⁵ Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.

¹⁸ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT)

¹¹ Let your wrath be overflowing; let your eyes see all the sons of pride, and make them low. ¹² Send destruction on all who are lifted up, pulling down the sinners from their places.

¹⁴ That man is a worker of evil; the seed of wrongdoing has given birth to deceit.

³ For the evil-doer is lifted up because of the purpose of his heart, and he whose mind is fixed on wealth is turned away from the Lord, saying evil against him.

¹⁶ The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations are gone from his land.

²⁵ On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the upright you will be upright;

¹⁴ Let your hope be in the Lord: take heart and be strong; yes, let your hope be in the Lord.

¹⁶ A king's salvation is not in the power of his army; a strong man does not get free by his great strength.

⁴ He gives thought to evil on his bed; he takes a way which is not good; he is not a hater of evil.

⁶ The nations were angry, the kingdoms were moved; at the sound of his voice the earth became like wax.

⁷ Truly, no man may get back his soul for a price, or give to God the payment for himself;

²¹ These things have you done, and I said nothing; it seemed to you that I was such a one as yourself; but I will make a protest against you, and put them in order before your eyes. ²² Now keep this in mind, you who have no memory of God, for fear that you may be crushed under my hand, with no one to give you help:

¹⁰ The upright man will be glad when he sees their punishment; his feet will be washed in the blood of the evil-doer. ¹¹ So that men will say, Truly there is a reward for righteousness; truly there is a God who is judge on the earth.

³ How long will you go on designing evil against a man? running against him as against a broken wall, which is on the point of falling?

¹⁰ Why may the nations say, Where is their God? Let payment for the blood of your servants be made openly among the nations before our eyes.

¹⁸ So that men may see that you only, whose name is Yahweh, are Most High over all the earth.

⁴⁰ Then the wrath of the Lord was burning against his people, and he was angry with his heritage. ⁴¹ And he gave them into the hands of the nations; and they were ruled by their haters. ⁴² By them they were crushed, and made low under their hands. ⁴³ Again and again he made them free; but their hearts were turned against his purpose, and they were overcome by their sins.

² Why may the nations say, Where is now their God? ³ But our God is in heaven: he has done whatever was pleasing to him.

¹ A Song of the going up. My eyes are lifted up to the hills: O where will my help come from? ² Your help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

² For their hearts are full of evil designs; and they are ever making ready causes of war.

¹⁴ His mind is ever designing evil: he lets loose violent acts.

³⁵ He will not take any payment; and he will not make peace with you though your money offerings are increased.

¹⁴ When there is no helping suggestion the people will have a fall, but with a number of wise guides they will be safe.

²⁷ He who, with all his heart, goes after what is good is searching for grace; but he who is looking for trouble will get it.

⁸ A man will give his wealth in exchange for his life; but the poor will not give ear to sharp words.

¹⁰ The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the upright man running into it is safe.

¹² Before destruction the heart of man is full of pride, and before honour goes a gentle spirit.

³ By his foolish behaviour a man's ways are turned upside down, and his heart is bitter against the Lord.

¹⁸ Every purpose is put into effect by wise help: and by wise guiding make war.

²⁸ Mercy and good faith keep the king safe, and the seat of his power is based on upright acts.

³⁰ Wisdom and knowledge and wise suggestions are of no use against the Lord.

²⁹ Who says, Oh! who says, Ah! who has violent arguments, who has grief, who has wounds without cause, whose eyes are dark? ³⁰ Those who are seated late over the wine: those who go looking for mixed wine. ³¹ Keep your eyes from looking on the wine when it is red, when its colour is bright in the cup, when it goes smoothly down: ³² In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.

² For the purposes of their hearts are destruction, and their lips are talking of trouble.

¹³ As the cold of snow in the time of grain-cutting, so is a true servant to those who send him; for he gives new life to the soul of his master.

¹ Do not make a noise about tomorrow, for you are not certain what a day's outcome may be.

⁴ It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to take wine, or for rulers to say, Where is strong drink? ⁵ For fear that through drinking they may come to have no respect for the law, wrongly judging the cause of those who are in trouble.

¹¹ And again I saw under the sun that the reward goes not to him who is quick, or the fruits of war to the strong; and there is no bread for the wise, or wealth for men of learning, or respect for those who have knowledge; but time and chance come to all.

¹⁶ Unhappy is the land whose king is a boy, and whose rulers are feasting in the morning. ¹⁷ Happy is the land whose ruler is of noble birth, and whose chiefs take food at the right time, for strength and not for feasting.

¹¹ The high looks of man will be put to shame, and the pride of men will be made low, and only the Lord will be lifted up in that day. ¹² For the day of the Lord of armies is coming on all the pride of men, and on all who are high and lifted up;

¹ Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but were not able to overcome it. ² And word came to the family of David that Aram had put up its tents in Ephraim. And the king's heart, and the hearts of his people, were moved, like the trees of the wood shaking in the wind. ³ Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out now, you and Shear-jashub, your son, and you will come across Ahaz at the end of the stream flowing from the higher pool, in the highway of the washerman's field; ⁴ And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear, and do not let your heart be feeble, because of these two ends of smoking fire-wood, because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Because Aram has made evil designs against you, saying, ⁶ Let us go up against Judah, troubling her, and forcing our way into her, and let us put up a king in her, even the son of Tabeel: ⁷ This is the word of the Lord God: This design will not come about or be effected. ⁸ For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin and in sixty-five years from now Ephraim will be broken, and will no longer be a people: ⁹ And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not have faith, your kingdom will be broken.

⁹ Have knowledge, O peoples, and be in fear; give ear, all you far-off parts of the earth:

¹² Do not say, It is holy, about everything of which this people says, It is holy; and do not be in fear of what they go in fear of.

¹⁸ See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of armies, whose resting-place is in Mount Zion.

⁸ For he says, Are not all my captains kings?

¹² For this cause it will be that, when the purpose of the Lord against Mount Zion and Jerusalem is complete, I will send punishment on the pride of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of his uplifted eyes. ¹³ For he has said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my knowledge, for I am wise: and I have taken away the limits of the peoples' lands, and the stores of their wealth have become mine; and I have made towns low in the dust, sending destruction on those living in them; ¹⁴ And I have put my hands on the wealth of the peoples, as on the place where a bird has put her eggs; and as a man may take the eggs from which a bird has gone, so I have taken all the earth for myself: and not a wing was moved, and not a mouth gave out a sound. ¹⁵ Will the axe say high-sounding words against him who is using it, or the blade be full of pride against him who is cutting with it? As if a rod had the power of shaking him who is using it, or as if a stick might take up him who is not wood. ¹⁶ For this cause the Lord, the Lord of armies, will make his fat become wasted; and in his inner parts a fire will be lighted like a burning flame.

⁵ Then a king's seat will be based on mercy, and one will be seated on it in the tent of David for ever; judging uprightly, and quick to do righteousness.

² At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and take off your robe, and your shoes from your feet; and he did so, walking unclothed and without shoes on his feet. ³ And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone unclothed and without shoes for three years as a sign and a wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia,

¹² And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief:

¹⁸ And it will be that he who goes in flight from the sound of fear will be overtaken by death; and he who gets free from death will be taken in the net: for the windows on high are open, and the bases of the earth are shaking.

¹⁰ Even if you are kind to the evil-doer, he will not go after righteousness; even in the land of the upright he will still go on in his wrongdoing, and will not see the glory of the Lord. ¹¹ Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see: let them see (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) yes, your haters will be burned up in the fire.

² And the king of Assyria sent the Rab-shakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a strong force, and he took up his position by the stream of the higher pool, by the highway of the washerman's ³ And there came out to him Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder. ⁴ And the Rab-shakeh said to them, Say now to Hezekiah, These are the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: In what are you placing your hope? ⁵ You say you have a design and strength for war, but these are only words: now to whom are you looking for support, that you have gone against my authority? ⁶ See, you are basing your hope on that broken rod of Egypt, which will go into a man's hand if he makes use of it for a support; for so is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who put their faith in him. ⁷ And if you say to me, Our hope is in the Lord our God; is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away, saying to Judah and Jerusalem that worship may only be given before this altar? ⁸ And now, take a chance with my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put horsemen on them. ⁹ How then may you put to shame the least of my master's servants? and you have put your hope in Egypt for war-carriages and horsemen: ¹⁰ And have I now come to send destruction on this land without the Lord's authority? It was the Lord himself who said to me, Go up against this land and make it waste. ¹¹ Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to the Rab-shakeh, Please make use of the Aramaean language in talking to your servants, for we are used to it, and do not make use of the Jews' language in the hearing of the people on the wall. ¹² But the Rab-shakeh said, Is it to your master or to you that my master has sent me to say these words? has he not sent me to the men seated on the wall? for they are the people who will be short of food with you when the town is shut in. ¹³ Then the Rab-shakeh got up and said with a loud voice in the Jews' language, Give ear to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria: ¹⁴ This is what the king says: Do not be tricked by Hezekiah, for there is no salvation for you in him. ¹⁵ And do not let Hezekiah make you put your faith in the Lord, saying, The Lord will certainly keep us safe, and this town will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria. ¹⁶ Do not give ear to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says, Make peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone will be free to take the fruit of his vine and of his fig-tree, and the water of his spring; ¹⁷ Till I come and take you away to a land like yours, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vine-gardens. ¹⁸ Give no attention to Hezekiah when he says to you, The Lord will keep us safe. Has any one of the gods of the nations kept his land from falling into the hands of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? where are the gods of Samaria? and have they kept Samaria out of my hand? ²⁰ Who among all the gods of these countries have kept their country from falling into my hand, to give cause for the thought that the Lord will keep Jerusalem from falling into my hand? ²¹ But they kept quiet and gave him no answer: for the king's order was, Give him no answer. ²² Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothing parted as a sign of grief, and gave him an account of what the Rab-shakeh had said.

¹ And on hearing it Hezekiah took off his robe and put on haircloth and went into the house of the Lord.

⁹ And when news came to him that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, had made an attack on him, (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) And he sent representatives to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, ¹⁰ This is what you are to say to Hezekiah, king of Judah: Let not your God, in whom is your faith, give you a false hope, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hands of the king of Assyria.

²⁰ But now, O Lord our God, give us salvation from his hand, so that it may be clear to all the kingdoms of the earth that you, and you only, are the Lord.

²⁴ You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; and its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods: I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods.

²⁴ You have sent your servants with evil words against the Lord, and have said, With all my war-carriages I have come up to the top of the mountains, to the inmost parts of Lebanon; and its tall cedars will be cut down, and the best trees of its woods: I will come up into his highest places, into his thick woods. ²⁵ I have made water-holes and taken their waters, and with my foot I have made all the rivers of Egypt dry.

²⁹ Because your wrath against me and your pride have come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my cord in your lips, and I will make you go back by the way you came. ³⁰ And this will be the sign to you: you will get your food this year from what comes up of itself, and in the second year from the produce of the same; and in the third year you will put in your seed, and get in the grain, and make vine-gardens, and take of their fruit. ³¹ And those of Judah who are still living will again take root in the earth, and give fruit. ³² For from Jerusalem those who have been kept safe will go out, and those who are still living will go out of Mount Zion: by the fixed purpose of the Lord of armies this will be done. ³³ For this cause the Lord says about the king of Assyria, He will not come into this town, or send an arrow against it; he will not come before it with arms, or put up an earthwork against it. ³⁴ By the way he came he will go back, and he will not get into this town. ³⁵ For I will keep this town safe, for my honour, and for the honour of my servant David. ³⁶ And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies.

³⁶ And the angel of the Lord went out and put to death in the army of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men: and when the people got up early in the morning, there was nothing to be seen but dead bodies. ³⁷ Sennacherib, king of Assyria, went back to his place at Nineveh.

⁸ I am the Lord; that is my name: I will not give my glory to another, or my praise to pictured images.

⁹ Those who make a pictured image are all of them as nothing, and the things of their desire will be of no profit to them: and their servants see not, and have no knowledge; so they will be put to shame.

¹⁵ See, they may be moved to war, but not by my authority: all those who come together to make an attack on you, will be broken against you.

²⁶ O daughter of my people, put on haircloth, rolling yourself in the dust: give yourself to sorrow, as for an only son, with most bitter cries of grief; for he who makes waste will come on us suddenly.

⁷ Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we have been turned away from you, we have done evil against you.

³⁴ Give cries of grief, you keepers of sheep; give cries for help, rolling yourselves in the dust, you chiefs of the flock: for the days of your destruction have fully come, and I will send you in all directions, and your fall will be like that of the males of the flock.

² This is what the Lord has said to me: Make for yourself bands and yokes and put them on your neck; ³ And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Zidon, by their servants who come to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, king of Judah;

¹⁰ And say to them, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and he will put the seat of his kingdom on these stones which have been put in a safe place here by you; and his tent will be stretched over them.

⁴⁴ He who goes in flight from the fear will be overtaken by death; and he who gets free from death will be taken in the net: for I will make this come on Moab, even the year of their punishment, says the Lord.

²⁷ And I will have a fire lighted on the wall of Damascus, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad.

⁷ Jerusalem keeps in mind, in the days of her sorrow and of her wanderings, all the desired things which were hers in days gone by; when her people came into the power of her hater and she had no helper, her attackers saw their desire effected on her and made sport of her destruction.

¹⁰ The hand of her hater is stretched out over all her desired things; for she has seen that the nations have come into her holy place, about whom you gave orders that they were not to come into the meeting of your people.

³ And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.

⁷ And the dead will be falling down among you, and you will be certain that I am the Lord.

¹⁴ And my hand will be stretched out against them, making the land waste and unpeopled, from the waste land to Riblah, through all their living-places: and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

¹² And you will be certain that I am the Lord: for you have not been guided by my rules or given effect to my orders, but you have been living by the orders of the nations round about you.

¹⁶ But a small number of them I will keep from the sword, from the need of food, and from disease, so that they may make clear all their disgusting ways among the nations where they come; and they will be certain that I am the Lord.

⁹ And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean before the eyes of the nations among whom they were, and before whose eyes I gave them knowledge of myself, by taking them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out.

²² And I was acting for the honour of my name, so that it might not be made unclean in the eyes of the nations, before whose eyes I had taken them out.

⁷ For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will send up from the north Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings, against Tyre, with horses and war-carriages and with an army and great numbers of people.

²¹ But I had pity for my holy name which the children of Israel had made unclean wherever they went. ²² For this cause say to the children of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: I am doing this, not because of you, O children of Israel, but because of my holy name, which you have made unclean among the nations wherever you went. ²³ And I will make holy my great name which has been made unclean among the nations, which you have made unclean among them; and it will be clear to the nations that I am the Lord, says the Lord, when I make myself holy in you before their eyes.

³² Not because of you am I doing it, says the Lord; let it be clear to you, and be shamed and made low because of your ways, O children of Israel.

⁷ And I will make clear my holy name among my people Israel; I will no longer let my holy name be made unclean: and the nations will be certain that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

³⁷ You, O King, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory,

³⁷ Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give worship and praise and honour to the King of heaven; for all his works are true and his ways are right: and those who go in pride he is able to make low.

² Belshazzar, while he was overcome with wine, gave orders for them to put before him the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem; so that the king and his lords, his wives and his other women, might take their drink from them.

²⁰ But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became hard with pride, he was put down from his place as king, and they took his glory from him: ²¹ And he was sent out from among the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts', and he was living with the asses of the fields; he had grass for his food like the oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he was certain that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and gives power over it to anyone at his pleasure. ²² And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not kept your heart free from pride, though you had knowledge of all this; ²³ But you have been lifting yourself up against the Lord of heaven, and they have put the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your women, have taken wine in them; and you have given praise to gods of silver and gold, of brass and iron and wood and stone, who are without the power of seeing or hearing, and without knowledge: and to the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, you have not given glory;

³⁰ That very night Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans, was put to death.

²⁷ And as for these two kings, their hearts will be fixed on doing evil and they will say false words at one table; but it will come to nothing: for the end will be at the time fixed.

¹¹ Loose ways and new wine take away wisdom.

¹⁵ Though he gives fruit among his brothers, an east wind will come, the wind of the Lord coming up from the waste land, and his spring will become dry, his fountain will be without water: it will make waste the store of all the vessels of his desire.

⁵ For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things.

⁹ Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up. ¹⁰ Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong.

¹⁷ And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy, and no strange person will ever again go through her.

⁴ And I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, burning up the great houses of Ben-hadad.

¹⁴ And flight will be impossible for the quick-footed, and the force of the strong will become feeble, and the man of war will not get away safely: ¹⁵ And the bowman will not keep his place; he who is quick-footed will not get away safely: and the horseman will not keep his life.

¹⁹ As if a man, running away from a lion, came face to face with a bear; or went into the house and put his hand on the wall and got a bite from a snake.

¹⁴ Then Amos in answer said to Amaziah, I am no prophet, or one of the sons of the prophets; I am a herdman and one who takes care of sycamore-trees:

³ Though they take cover on the top of Carmel, I will go in search of them and get them out; though they keep themselves from my eyes in the bed of the sea, I will give orders to the great snake there and he will give them a bite:

³ You have been tricked by the pride of your heart, O you whose living-place is in the cracks of the rock, whose house is high up; who has said in his heart, Who will make me come down to earth? ⁴ Though you go up on high like an eagle, though your house is placed among the stars, I will make you come down from there, says the Lord.

⁵ And the people of Nineveh had belief in God; and a time was fixed for going without food, and they put on haircloth, from the greatest to the least. ⁶ And the word came to the king of Nineveh, and he got up from his seat of authority, and took off his robe, and covering himself with haircloth, took his seat in the dust.

¹⁶ And when you go without food, be not sad-faced as the false-hearted are. For they go about with changed looks, so that men may see that they are going without food. Truly I say to you, They have their reward.

²⁸ And have no fear of those who put to death the body, but are not able to put to death the soul. But have fear of him who has power to give soul and body to destruction in hell.

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him give up all, and take up his cross, and come after me.

⁴¹ They say to him, He will put those cruel men to a cruel death, and will let out the vine-garden to other workmen, who will give him the fruit when it is ready. ⁴² Jesus says to them, Did you never see in the Writings, The stone which the builders put on one side, the same has been made the chief stone of the building: this was the Lord's doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes? ⁴³ For this reason I say to you, The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing the fruits of it.

²⁴ And he who had had the one talent came and said, Lord, I had knowledge that you are a hard man, getting in grain where you have not put seed, and making profits for which you have done no work: ²⁵ And I was in fear, and went away, and put your talent in the earth: here is what is yours. ²⁶ But his lord in answer said to him, You are a bad and unready servant; if you had knowledge that I get in grain where I did not put seed, and make profits for which I have done no work, ²⁷ Why, then, did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I would have got back what is mine with interest?

³³ But Peter made answer and said to him, Though all may be turned away from you, I will never be turned away. ³⁴ Jesus said to him, Truly I say to you that this night, before the hour of the cock's cry, you will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. ³⁵ Peter says to him, Even if I am put to death with you, I will not be false to you. So said all the disciples.

⁷⁵ And the word of Jesus came back to Peter, when he said, Before the hour of the cock's cry, you will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. And he went out, weeping bitterly.

¹ And he gave them teaching in the form of stories. A man had a vine-garden planted, and put a wall about it, and made a place for crushing out the wine, and put up a tower, and let it out to field-workers, and went into another country. ² And when the time came, he sent a servant to get from the workmen some of the fruit of the garden. ³ And they took him, and gave him blows, and sent him away with nothing. ⁴ And again he sent to them another servant; and they gave him wounds on the head, and were very cruel to him. ⁵ And he sent another; and they put him to death: and a number of others, whipping some, and putting some to death. ⁶ He still had one, a dearly loved son: he sent him last to them, saying, They will have respect for my son. ⁷ But those workmen said among themselves, This is he who will one day be the owner of the property; come, let us put him to death, and the heritage will be ours. ⁸ And they took him and put him to death, pushing his body out of the garden. ⁹ What then will the master of the garden do? He will come and put the workmen to death, and will give the garden into the hands of others. ¹⁰ Have you not seen this which is in the Writings: The stone which the builders put on one side, the same was made the chief stone of the building: ¹¹ This was the Lord's doing, and it is a wonder in our eyes? ¹² And they made attempts to take him; but they were in fear of the people, because they saw that the story was against them; and they went away from him.

⁴ Or those eighteen men who were crushed by the fall of the tower of Siloam, were they worse than all the other men living in Jerusalem?

⁸ And his lord was pleased with the false servant, because he had been wise; for the sons of this world are wiser in relation to their generation than the sons of light.

²² He said to him, By the words of your mouth you will be judged, you bad servant. You had knowledge that I am a hard man, taking up what I have not put down and getting in grain where I have not put seed;

³⁴ But give attention to yourselves, for fear that your hearts become over-full of the pleasures of food and wine, and the cares of this life, and that day may come on you suddenly, and take you as in a net:

³¹ And he said, How is that possible when I have no guide? And he made Philip get up by his side.

¹² And when it was day, the Jews came together and put themselves under an oath that they would take no food or drink till they had put Paul to death.

²¹ Because, having the knowledge of God, they did not give glory to God as God, and did not give praise, but their minds were full of foolish things, and their hearts, being without sense, were made dark. ²² Seeming to be wise, they were in fact foolish, ²³ And by them the glory of the eternal God was changed and made into the image of man who is not eternal, and of birds and beasts and things which go on the earth.

¹³ Their throat is like an open place of death; with their tongues they have said what is not true: the poison of snakes is under their lips: ¹⁴ Whose mouth is full of curses and bitter words: ¹⁵ Their feet are quick in running after blood; ¹⁶ Destruction and trouble are in their ways; ¹⁷ And of the way of peace they have no knowledge: ¹⁸ There is no fear of God before their eyes.

²⁷ But God made selection of the foolish things of this world so that he might put the wise to shame; and the feeble things that he might put to shame the strong; ²⁸ And the low things of the world, and the things without honour, did God make selection of, yes, even the things which are not, so that he might make as nothing the things which are: ²⁹ So that no flesh might have glory before God.

⁷ In whom we have salvation through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins, through the wealth of his grace, ⁸ Which he gave us in full measure in all wisdom and care;

¹⁸ And do not take overmuch wine by which one may be overcome, but be full of the Spirit;

¹⁰ Lastly, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his power.

¹⁸ Being conscious that you have been made free from that foolish way of life which was your heritage from your fathers, not through a payment of things like silver or gold which come to destruction, ¹⁹ But through holy blood, like that of a clean and unmarked lamb, even the blood of Christ:

³ And I will give orders to my two witnesses, and they will be prophets for a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, clothed with haircloth.