But Joab replied, "May the LORD increase the population of his people a hundredfold! Your majesty, all of them are your majesty's servants, aren't they? So why should your majesty demand this? Why should he bring guilt to Israel?"

The descendants of Amram included Aaron and Moses. Aaron had been set apart to consecrate the most holy things, with the intent that he and his sons should present offerings in the LORD's presence forever, ministering to him and pronouncing blessings in his name forever.

But who can build a temple for him, since neither heaven nor the highest of the heavens can contain him? So who am I, that I should build a temple to him, except to burn incense in his presence?

while King Rehoboam conferred with his advisors who had worked with his father Solomon during his administration. He asked them, "What is your advice as to what response I should return to these people?"

"This is what you should tell the people who asked you: "Your father made our burden heavy, but you must make it lighter for us!'" the young men who had grown up with Rehoboam replied. "Tell them "My little finger will be thicker than my father's whole body!

So the king of Israel gathered together 400 prophets and asked them, "Should we go attack Ramoth-gilead, or should I call off the attack?" "Go attack them," they all said, "because God will drop them right in the king's hand."

"There is still one man left by whom we could ask the LORD what to do," the king of Israel replied to Jehoshaphat, "but I hate him because he won't prophesy anything good about me. Instead, he always prophesies evil. He is Imla's son Micaiah." But Jehoshaphat rebuked Ahab, "Kings should never talk like that."

When Micaiah approached the king, the king asked him, "Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I not?" "Go to war," Micaiah replied, "and you will be successful, because the LORD will hand it over to the king!"

where Hanani's son Jehu, the seer, went out to meet him. He asked King Jehoshaphat, "Should you be helping those who are wicked, yes or no? Should you love those who hate the LORD? Wrath is headed your way directly from the LORD because of this.

As a result, the workmen did their labor, and the repair work progressed steadily under their supervision, and they restored God's Temple back to what it should be, and strengthened it, too.

But even while the prophet was speaking, the king asked him, "Did we appoint you to be a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be struck down?" So the prophet stopped speaking, but he also said, "I know God has determined to destroy you, because you've done all this and ignored my counsel."

Hezekiah also sent word to all of Israel and Judah, and wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the LORD's Temple in Jerusalem to observe the Passover to the LORD God of Israel.

Many people gathered together and plugged up all the springs, along with the stream that flowed through the region. They were thinking to themselves, "Why should the Assyrian kings invade and discover an abundant water supply?"

Governor Zerubbabel also ruled that they shouldn't eat anything holy until a priest arose with Urim and Thummim.

Be diligent and take precautions so that you do not neglect your responsibility in this matter. Why should the kingdom sustain any more damage?

Then I called for a fast there at the Ahava River so we could humble ourselves before our God and seek from him an appropriate way for us and our little ones to live, and how we should guard our personal wealth,

should we violate your commandments by intermarrying with the nations who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you had consumed us, with not even a remnant surviving to escape?

Then I was filled with fear. I replied to the king, "May the king live forever. Why shouldn't I be troubled, since the city where my ancestral sepulchers are located lies waste, with its gates burned by fire?"

So I said, "What you're doing isn't right! Shouldn't you live in the fear of our God to avoid shame from our foreign enemies?

So I sent messengers to them, replying "I am involved in a great endeavor, so I can't leave. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?"

But I asked him, "Should a man like me run? Should someone like me run into the Temple to save his life? I won't go there!"

I charged them, "Do not open the gates of Jerusalem until mid-day. Until then, let everyone stand watch, keeping the gates shut and locked. Appoint security watches from those who live in Jerusalem. Everyone should maintain his own watch near his house."

As the Sabbath approached and it began to get dark at the gates of Jerusalem, I gave word to shut the gates, charging that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I stationed some of my men at the gates to ensure that no loads would be brought in on the Sabbath day.

Should we listen to you and do all of this terrible evil by transgressing against our God to marry foreign wives?"

The king inquired, "According to law, what should be done to Queen Vashti because she did not obey the order of King Ahasuerus that was delivered by the eunuchs?"

He sent letters to all the provinces of the king, written in the script of that province, and to each people in their own language, ordering that every man should be the master in his house and speak the language of his own people.

After Haman came in, the king asked him, "What should be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?"

establishing that they should celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year,

the Jewish people established this celebration, making it a tradition for themselves, for their descendants, and for all who joined with them that they should not fail to observe these two days each year, based on the written instructions, and at the prescribed time.

These days should be remembered and observed in every generation by each family in every province and town. These days of Purim should not be neglected by the Jewish people, and that they should not be forgotten by their descendants.

"Do I have the strength to wait? And why should I be patient?

I will be condemned, so why should I wear myself out with this futility?

"Shouldn't a multitude of words be answered, or a person who talks too much be vindicated?

Why shouldn't I bite my flesh or take my life in my hands?

"Should a wise person respond with knowledge based on wind? Should he fill his stomach with a wind storm from the east?

Should he engage in unprofitable argument, or give a speech that benefits no one?

After all, isn't my complaint against a human being? If so, why shouldn't I be impatient?

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Where's the profit in talking to him?'

because something as lascivious as that is an iniquity that should be judged.

I thought, experience should speak; abundance of years teaches wisdom.

"Should you not be paid back, since you have rejected him? You do the choosing! I won't! Tell us what you know!

You should know! After all, you had been born back then, so the number of your days is great!

"Should the one who is fighting the Almighty find fault with him? Let God's accuser answer."

so I may declare everything for which you should be praised in the gates of the daughter of Zion, so I will rejoice in your deliverance.

Who is the man who fears the LORD? God will teach him the path he should choose.

Therefore every godly person should pray to you at such a time. Surely a flood of great waters will not reach him.

I will instruct you and teach you concerning the path you should walk; I will direct you with my eye.

and the king will greatly desire your beauty. Because he is your lord, you should bow in respect before him.

Why should I be afraid when evil days come my way, when the wickedness of those who deceive me surrounds me

that he should go on living and not see corruption.

Why should I eat the flesh of oxen or drink the blood of goats?

Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let vengeance for the blood of your servants be meted out before our eyes and among the nations.

Why should the nations ask "Where now is their God?"

In the morning let me hear of your gracious love, for in you I trust. Cause me to know the way I should take, because I have set my hope on you.

LORD, what are human beings, that you should care about them, or mortal man, that you should think about him?

Should your springs flow outside, or streams of water in the street?

They should be for you alone and not for strangers who are with you.

Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

When a king is ready to speak officially, what he says should not err with respect to justice.

If you don't have the ability to pay, why should your very bed be taken from under you?

moreover, every person should eat, drink, and enjoy the benefits of everything that he undertakes, since it is a gift from God.

Never let your mouth cause you to sin and don't proclaim in the presence of the angel, "My promise was a mistake," for why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy what you've undertaken?

Tell me, you whom I love, where do you graze your flock? Where do you make your flock lie down at noon? Why should I be considered a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions?

Return, return, Shulammite, return, return, so we may look at you! Why should you look at the Shulammite, like you watch the dance of the two camps?

"So when they advise you, "Ask the mediums your questions, and quiz the spiritists who chirp and mutter,' shouldn't a people instead be consulting their God and not the dead on behalf of those who are living

"To whom, then, will you compare me, and to whom should I be equal?" asks the Holy One.

The LORD was pleased, for the sake of his vindication, that he should magnify his Law and make it glorious.

"This is what the LORD says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who directs you in the path by which you should go.

For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.

"Among the smooth stones of the ravines is your portion there they are as your lot. To them you have poured out drink offerings; you have brought grain offerings. Should I be lenient over such things?

Why should I forgive you? Your sons have forsaken me, and you have sworn by those who aren't gods. When I gave them enough food to satisfy them, they committed adultery and marched to the prostitute's house.

"Should I not punish them for these things?" asks the LORD, "And on a nation like this, should I not seek retribution?"

"Should I not punish them for this?' asks the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?'

Should I not punish them for these things?" asks the LORD, "and should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?"

Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit to take my life. Remember! I stood before you and spoke good on their behalf in order to turn your wrath away from them.

This is what you should say to one another and among yourselves, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

This is what you should say to the prophet, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by plague as the LORD has decreed about the nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?

Don't listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon and you'll live. Why should this city become a ruin?

Then Kareah's son Jonathan spoke privately to Gedaliah at Mizpah: "Let me go kill Nethaniah's son Ishmael, and no one will know. Why should he take your life? Otherwise all the Judeans who have gathered around you will be scattered, and the remnant of Judah will perish."

Pray that the LORD your God may inform us as to how we should live and what we should do."

Though Babylon should reach up to the heavens and fortify her high fortresses, from me destroyers will come to her," declares the LORD.

What can be said about you? To what should you be compared, fair Jerusalem? To what may I liken you, so I may comfort you, fair one of Zion? Indeed, your wound is as deep as the sea who can heal you?

Look, LORD, and take note: To whom have you done this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cuddled? Should priests and prophets be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Why should anyone living complain, any mortal, about being punished for sin?

You've profaned me among my people for a handful of barley and a morsel of bread. You're causing people to die who shouldn't have to die, and you're causing people to live who shouldn't survive, when you deceive my people who tend to listen to lies."

"Son of Man, these men have taken idols into their hearts. They've placed the stumbling block that is their own iniquity right in front of their faces. Should I be consulted by them at all?

"I don't take delight in the death of the wicked, do I?" asks the Lord GOD. "Shouldn't I rather delight when he turns from his wicked ways and lives?

Stop your transgressing the deeds by which you've rebelled and then make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, you house of Israel?

When you present your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with your idols to this day. Should I be inquired of by you, you house of Israel? As I live," declares the LORD, "I certainly won't be inquired of by you."

It's being sharpened for slaughter, and being polished to gleam like lightning.' "We shouldn't be rejoicing, should we, while my Son's scepter, the sword, is despising every tree?

Then the people told me, "Are you going to explain what these things that you're doing should mean to us?"

If I should say to a certain wicked person, "You wicked man, you're certainly about to die,' but you don't warn him to turn from his wicked behavior, he'll die in his guilt, but I'll seek retribution for his bloodshed from you.

"Woe to you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves and not the sheep. Shouldn't shepherds feed the sheep? You're eating the best parts, clothing yourselves with the wool, and slaughtering the home-grown sheep without having fed the sheep!

All of the royal administrators, prefects, regional authorities, scribes, and governors have concluded that the king should establish and enforce an edict that anyone who prays to any god or man for the next 30 days (except to you, your majesty) is to be thrown into the lions' pit.

As they serve between the porch and the altar, let the priests and ministers of the LORD weep and pray: "Spare your people, LORD, and do not make your heritage a disgrace so that nations ridicule them. Why should they say among the people, "Where is their God?"'"

"You should not have gloated over your brother, on the day of his calamity. You should not have rejoiced when the descendants of Judah were perishing. You should not have boasted when they were in distress.

"You should not have entered the gate of my people on the day of their disaster. Also, you should not have gloated over Judah's misfortune on the day of his disaster, nor should you have plundered his wealth on the day of his disaster.

And you should not have taken your stand at the crossroads to cut down his fleeing refugees, nor should you have handed over his survivors on the day of his distress."

So why shouldn't I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left, as well as a lot of livestock?