But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s [widowed] wife, then she shall go up to the gate [of the city, where court is held] to the elders, and say, ‘My brother-in-law refuses to continue his brother’s name in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother.’

So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he came out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

Also, concerning the Jews, write as you see fit, in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s signet ring—for a decree which is written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring may not be revoked.”

“He who kills an ox [for pagan sacrifice] is [as guilty] as one who kills a man;
He who sacrifices a lamb, as one who breaks a dog’s neck;
He who offers a grain offering, as one who offers swine’s blood;
He who offers incense, as one who blesses an idol.
Such people have chosen their own ways,
And their soul delights in their repulsive acts;

Gilead’s wife bore him sons, and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.”

Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought everything that was Elimelech’s and everything that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s from the hand of Naomi.

And from that day the ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a very long time, for it was twenty years [until the reign of King David]; and all the house of Israel lamented (wailed) and grieved after the Lord.

But Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David’s brother, responded, “Do not let my lord assume that all the king’s sons have been put to death; for only Amnon is dead. This act of revenge has been on Absalom’s mind since the day Amnon violated his sister Tamar.

“Then it will come about on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice
That I will punish the princes and the king’s sons
And all who are clothed in [lavish] foreign apparel [reflecting their paganism].

For how great is God’s goodness and how great is His beauty! And how great [He will make Israel’s] goodliness and [Israel’s] beauty!
Grain and new wine will make the young men and virgins flourish.

select the best and most capable of your master’s sons, and set him on his father’s throne, and fight for your master’s [royal] house.”

The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah; the three were born to him by Shua’s daughter the Canaanitess. Er, Judah’s eldest, was evil in the Lord’s sight, and He put him to death.

Now these are those whom David appointed over the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark [of the covenant] rested there.

He killed an Egyptian also, a man of great stature, five cubits tall. In the Egyptian’s hand was a spear like a weaver’s beam, and Benaiah went down to him with [only] a staff (rod) and grabbed the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.

Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels, and set out, taking some of his master’s good things with him; so he got up and journeyed to Mesopotamia [between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers], to the city of Nahor [the home of Abraham’s brother].

And so Solomon finished the house (temple) of the Lord and the palace of the king. He successfully accomplished all that he had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz, the son of Adah, Esau’s wife, and Reuel, the son of Basemath, Esau’s wife.

It happened that from the time that he made Joseph overseer in his house and [put him in charge] over all that he owned, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph; so the Lord’s blessing was on everything that Potiphar owned, in the house and in the field.

Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup; then I placed the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.”

And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man’s [grain] money in the mouth of the sack.

but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be unfaithful [to God] as the house of Ahab was unfaithful, and you have also murdered your brothers, your father’s house (your own family), who were better than you,

It came about that whenever the Levites brought the chest to the king’s official, and whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money, the king’s secretary and the chief priest’s representative would come and empty the chest, and take it, and return it to its place. They did this day after day and collected a large amount of money.

When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him [because he was not the firstborn]; and he grasped his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.

“You shall not covet [that is, selfishly desire and attempt to acquire] your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

And if he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or female servant, he must let the servant go free because of [the loss of] the tooth.

And they delivered the king’s edicts to the king’s satraps (lieutenants) and to the governors west of the [Euphrates] River, and they supported the people and God’s house.

Then the king’s servants who were at the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why are you disregarding the king’s command?”

Then the king’s scribes (secretaries) were summoned on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written just as Haman commanded to the king’s satraps (chief rulers), and to the governors who were over each province and to the officials of each people, each province according to its script (writing), each people according to their own language; being written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

My mind reels, horror overwhelms me;
The twilight I longed for has been turned into fear and trembling for me.

But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she shall eat her father’s food; but no layman shall eat it.

“Speak to the sons of Israel and get rods from them, a rod for each father’s household, from all their leaders according to their fathers’ households, twelve rods. Write every man’s name on his rod,

‘You shall not covet [that is, desire and seek to acquire] your neighbor’s wife, nor desire your neighbor’s house, his field, his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

‘Cursed is he who is intimate with his [half] sister, whether his father’s or his mother’s daughter.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

then they shall bring her out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed a deliberate sin in Israel by playing the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

“If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall be intimate with her after taking her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.

then his brother’s widow shall approach him in the presence of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, ‘So it is done to that man who does not build up his brother’s household.’

For Zion’s sake I (Isaiah) will not be silent,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet,
Until her righteousness and vindication go forth as brightness,
And her salvation goes forth like a burning torch.

For, behold, I will call all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north,” says the Lord; “and they will come and each one will set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its surrounding walls, and against all the cities of Judah [as My judicial act, the consequence of Judah’s deliberate disobedience].

“Go up through the rows of Jerusalem’s vineyards and destroy [them],
But do not completely destroy everything.
Strip away her branches and the tendrils [of her vines],
For they are not the Lord’s.

For if you will indeed obey this word, then kings will enter through the gates of this palace, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people.

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house [Jeremiah], and speak to all [the people of] the cities of Judah who have come to worship in the Lord’s house all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not omit a word!

If, however, the land of your possession is unclean, then cross into the land of the possession of the Lord, where the Lord’s tabernacle is situated, and settle down among us. But do not rebel against the Lord, or rebel against us by building an altar for yourselves, besides the altar of the Lord our God [at Shiloh].

They came before Eleazar the priest and before Joshua the son of Nun and before the leaders and said, “The Lord commanded Moses to give us an inheritance among our brothers.” So according to the command of the Lord Joshua gave them an inheritance among their father’s brothers.

The land on the south side belonged to Ephraim and that on the north side was Manasseh’s, and the sea was their border; they reached to [the territory of] Asher on the north and to [the territory of] Issachar on the east.

Baruch the son of Neriah did everything that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from [Jeremiah’s scroll] the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.

he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber; and behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the [other] princes.

So they who dwell at the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs [the evidence of Your presence].
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

Then on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Persuade your husband to tell us [through you] the [answer to the] riddle, or we will burn you and your father’s household with fire. Have you invited us to make us poor? Is this not true?”

When Gideon’s men blew the three hundred trumpets, the Lord set the sword of one [Midianite] against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.

Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal (Gideon) went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives, and said to them and to the whole clan of the household of his mother’s father,

Concerning the sons (descendants) of Ammon.

Thus says the Lord:
“Does Israel have no sons [to reclaim Gad from the Ammonites]?
Has he no heir?
Why then has Malcam taken possession of Gad
And [why do] his people live in the cities [of Gad]?

Samuel had heard all the words of the people and repeated them to the Lord.

The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife’s name was Naomi and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to the country of Moab and stayed there.

Then the [Shekinah] glory and brilliance of the God of Israel (the cloud) went up from the cherubim on which it had rested, to [stand above] the threshold of the [Lord’s] temple. And the Lord called to the man clothed with linen, who had the scribe’s writing case at his side.

Then the glory and brilliance of the Lord moved upward from the cherubim to [rest over] the threshold of the temple; and the temple was filled with the cloud and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the Lord’s glory.

The [wooden] shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; the blade-head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. And a shield-bearer walked in front of him.

Then he took his [shepherd’s] staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the stream bed, and put them in his shepherd’s bag which he had, that is, in his shepherd’s pouch. With his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine.

David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my life or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be the king’s son-in-law?”

So Saul’s servants spoke these words to David. But David said, “Is it a trivial thing in your sight to become a king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and insignificant?”

Then Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch for him, so that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.”

The king sat on his seat as on previous occasions, on his seat by the wall; then Jonathan stood up, and Abner [his commander] sat down by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.

Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.

and Ahijah the son of Ichabod’s brother Ahitub the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord’s priest at Shiloh, was wearing the ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.

The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. The commander of his army was named Abner, the son of Ner, Saul’s uncle.

‘But the vine was uprooted in [godly] wrath [by His representative]
And it was thrown down to the ground;
The east wind dried up its fruit.
Its strong branch was broken off
So that it withered;
The fire [of God’s judgment] consumed it.

‘It is sharpened to make a slaughter,
Polished to flash and glimmer like lightning!’

Shall we then rejoice [when such a disaster approaches]? But it rejects and views with contempt the scepter of My son [Judah].

thus says the Lord God, ‘Remove the turban and take off the crown; things shall not remain as they have been. Exalt that which is low and abase the high.

In you one has committed a shameful act with his neighbor’s wife, another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another has violated his sister, his father’s daughter.

Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son whose feet were crippled. He was five years old when the news [of the deaths] of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. And the boy’s nurse picked him up and fled; but it happened that while she was hurrying to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

Then, as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter [David’s wife], looked down from the window above and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she felt contempt for him in her heart [because she thought him undignified].

And the king said to the guards who stood around him, “Turn around and kill the priests of the Lord, because their loyalty also is with David, and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not inform me.” But the servants of the king were not willing to put out their hands to attack the Lord’s priests.

Now then, O king, come down [to Ziph] in accordance with all your heart’s desire to do so [and capture him]; and our part shall be to hand him over to the king.”

David’s men said to him, “Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will hand over your enemy to you, and you shall do to him as seems good to you.’” Then David arose [in the darkness] and stealthily cut off the hem (edge) of Saul’s robe.

Afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the hem of Saul’s robe.

(now the man’s name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings; he was a Calebite).

But one of Nabal’s young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Listen, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless (greet) our master, and he shouted at them [in contempt].

This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you surely deserve to die, because you have not guarded your lord, the Lord’s anointed. And now, see where the king’s spear is, and the jug of water that was by his head.”

Then Saul immediately fell full length on the earth [floor of the medium’s house], and was very afraid because of Samuel’s words; and he was thoroughly exhausted because he had not eaten all day and all night.