'Us' in the Bible

since the LORD our God is the one who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, from a life of slavery. He did those great things right in front of us, preserving us along the way that we traveled and among all the nations through whose territory we passed.

The LORD expelled all the people before us, including the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore, we also will serve the LORD, since he is our God."

and then told all of the people, "Look! This stone will testify for us, because it has heard everything that the LORD has spoken to us. So it will stand as a witness against you in the event that you deny your God."

Sometime after Joshua had died, the Israelis asked the LORD, "Who is to lead us against the Canaanites in our opening attack against them?"

But the tribe of Judah told the tribe of Simeon, the descendants of Judah's brother, "Come with us into our territory, and we'll both fight the Canaanites. In return, we'll go with you when you fight in your territory." So the army of the tribe of Simeon accompanied the army of the tribe of Judah.

The scouts observed a man coming out of the city and they promised him, "Please show us the entrance to the city and we'll deal kindly with you."

But Gideon replied, "Right" Sir, if the LORD is with us, then why has all of this happened to us? And where are all of his miraculous works that our ancestors recounted to us when they said, "The LORD brought us up from Egypt, didn't he?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us over to Midian!"

So the leading men of the city ordered Joash, "Bring us that son of yours. He's going to die, because he tore down the altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah that stood beside it!"

Later on, the descendants of Ephraim spoke to Gideon. They argued vehemently, "What are you doing to us? You never called us! But you went out to fight Midian!"

Then Zebah and Zalmunna responded, "Get up and attack us yourself, since a man's valor is only as good as the man himself." So Gideon got up, killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the crescent-shaped necklaces that adorned the necks of their camels.

Then the men of Israel asked Gideon, "Rule over us you, your son, and your grandsons because you have delivered us from Midian's domination."

"Once upon a time the trees went out to consecrate a king for themselves. "So they told the olive tree, "Reign over us!'

"So the trees told the fig tree, "Hey you! Come and reign over us!'

"So the trees told the grape vine, "Hey you! Come and reign over us!'

"So all the trees told the bramble bush, "Hey you! Come and reign over us!'

The Israelis replied to the LORD, "We have sinned, so do to us anything that's right to do in your opinion, just please deliver us right now."

So the elders of Gilead told Jephthah, "Well, we're coming back to you now so you can accompany us, fight the Ammonites, and become the head of all the inhabitants of Gilead."

Afterwards, Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to ask him, "What's your dispute between us that prompted you to come and attack my land?"

Israel sent a delegation to the king of Edom and asked him, "Please let us pass through your territory."

"Then Israel sent a delegation to Sihon, king of the Amorites and king of Heshbon. Israel requested of him, "Please let us pass through your territory to our place."

Don't you control what your god Chemosh gives you? In the same way, we'll take control of whomever the LORD our God has driven out in front of us.

A little while later, the army of Ephraim was mustered, and they crossed to Zaphon. They confronted Jephthah and asked, "Why did you cross over to fight the Ammonites without calling us to accompany you? We're going to burn your house down around you!"

So Manoah prayed to the LORD, "Please, Lord, have the man of God whom you sent before come again so he can instruct us what to do on behalf of the child who is to be born."

Manoah responded to the angel of the LORD, "Please, let us detain you while we prepare a young goat for you."

But his wife replied to him, "If the LORD had intended to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from us, he wouldn't have shown us all these things, and he wouldn't have permitted us to hear things like this, now would he?"

But if you don't solve it, then you'll give me 30 linen garments and 30 formal garments." "Tell us your riddle and we'll solve it," they responded.

The next day, they told Samson's wife, "Coax your husband to explain the riddle or we'll set fire to your father's house with you in it! You've invited us here to make us paupers, haven't you?"

The leading men of Judah asked, "Why have you invaded us?" They replied, "We're here to arrest Samson. Then we're going to do to him what he did to us."

In response, 3,000 soldiers from the tribe of Judah went down to the caves of the rock of Etam and asked Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines have us in their control? What have you done to us?" "I did to them what they did to me," he answered.

When the people saw Samson, they praised their god, claiming: Our god has given our enemy into our control; the one who was destroying our land, and who has killed many of us.

Because they all got good and drunk, they ordered, "Go get Samson, so he can entertain us." So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them while they made him stand between the pillars.

They told him, "Shut up and keep quiet. Come with us and be our spiritual father and priest. It's better for you, isn't it, to be a priest to an entire tribe and family in Israel than to be priest to the home of one man?"

The descendants of Dan answered him, "You had better not talk to us about this, or else these bad guys here will attack you. You will lose your life, along with the lives of your whole household."

While the descendants of Benjamin were learning that the Israelis had gone up to Mizpah, the Israelis asked, "Somebody tell us how this evil could happen?"

So look, all you Israelis! Speak up and give us your advice!"

The Israelis mounted up, traveled to Bethel, and asked God what to do. They said, "Who is to lead us in our opening attack against the descendants of Benjamin?" The LORD replied, "Judah is to open the attack."

Then the descendants of Benjamin told themselves, "They're falling right in front of us, just like before!"

Now the people of Israel had taken a vow in Mizpah that went like this: "Not even one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a descendant of Benjamin!"

If their fathers or brothers come complaining to us, we'll tell them "Be generous! Give them to us voluntarily, because we didn't take anyone to be a wife for the men of the tribe of Benjamin as a result of the battle. And you haven't incurred guilt by giving your daughters to them.'"

She asked us, "Please allow me to glean what's left of the grain behind the harvesters.' So she came out and has continued working from dawn until now, except for a short time in a shelter."

Naomi replied, "May the one who hasn't abandoned his gracious love to the living or to the dead be blessed by the LORD." Naomi added, "This man is closely related to us, our related redeemer, as a matter of fact!"

When the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why did the LORD defeat us today when we fought the Philistines? Let's take the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so it may go with us and deliver us from the power of our enemies."

and the Philistines were terrified. "God has come into the camp," they said. "How terrible for us, because nothing like this has ever happened before!

How terrible for us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert.

When the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, "Don't let the Ark of the God of Israel stay with us, because he is severely attacking us and our god Dagon."

Then they sent the Ark of God to Ekron. When the Ark of God arrived in Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the Ark of the God of Israel to us to kill us and our people!"

They sent messengers and gathered together all the Philistine lords: "Send away the Ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to where it belongs so that it does not kill us and our people." Meanwhile, a deadly panic had spread all over the town, and God kept on pressuring them there.

The Philistines summoned the priests and diviners and asked, "What should we do about the Ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its place."

Keep watching it. If it goes up along the road to its own territory to Beth-shemesh, it's the LORD who has done this great evil to us. But if it does not, then we will know that he wasn't pressuring us. It happened to us as a natural event."

The Israelis told Samuel, "Don't stop crying out to the LORD our God for us that he may deliver us from the hand of the Philistines."

Then Samuel took a stone, placed it between Mizpah and Shen and named it Ebenezer. He said, "The LORD has helped us this far."

They told him, "Look, you're old, and your sons don't follow your example. So appoint a king to govern us like all the other nations."

Samuel was displeased when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD.

The people refused to listen to Samuel. Instead, they insisted, "No! Let a king rule over us instead!

We, too, will be like all the nations! Our king will govern us and go out before us to fight our battles."

When they entered the region of Zuph, Saul told the young man with him, "Come on, let's go back so my father does not stop worrying about the donkeys and become anxious about us."

The young man said, "Look, there's a man of God in this town. The man is respected, and everything he predicts happens. Now, let's go there. Perhaps he can tell us about the journey on which we have set out."

Saul told the young man, "Look, we could go, but what could we bring the man? The bread is gone from our bags, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have with us?"

The young man answered Saul again, "Look here! I have in my hand a quarter shekel of silver. I'll give it to the man of God, and he will tell us about our journey."

As they were going down to the edge of the town, Samuel told Saul, "Tell your young man to go ahead of us and when he has gone ahead, stop for a while so I may declare God's word to you."

Saul told his uncle, "He actually told us that the donkeys had been found," but he did not tell him about the matter of kingship about which Samuel had spoken.

But today you have rejected your God who delivers you from all your troubles and difficulties. You have said, "No! Instead, appoint a king over us.' Now present yourselves in the LORD's presence by your tribes and families."

But some troublemakers said, "How can this man deliver us?" They despised him and did not bring him a gift. But Saul remained silent.

Meanwhile, Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been severely oppressing the descendants of Gad and descendants of Reuben, gouging out their right eyes and not allowing Israel to have a deliverer. No one was left among the Israelis across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. However, 7,000 men had escaped from the Ammonites and entered Jabesh-gilead.

The elders of Jabesh told him, "Leave us alone for seven days so that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then if no one delivers us, we will come out to you and surrender."

The men of Jabesh said, "Tomorrow we will come out to you and surrender. Then you can do whatever you want to us."

The people told Samuel, "Who said, "Will Saul reign over us?' Bring them to us and we will put them to death!"

They said, "You haven't cheated us or oppressed us, and you haven't taken anything from anyone's hand."

"Then they cried out to the LORD: "We have sinned because we have forsaken the LORD and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. Now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.'

But when you saw that Nahash, king of the Ammonites, was coming to fight you, you told me, "No, let a king rule over us instead,' even though the LORD your God was your king.

Jonathan told his armor bearer, "Come, let's go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised ones. Perhaps the LORD will work for us, since nothing prevents the LORD from delivering, whether by many or by a few."

If they say to us, "Stay there until we come to you,' then we will stay where we are and not go up to them.

But if they say, "Come up and fight us,' then we will go up, for the LORD has given them into our hands, and this will be the sign for us."

The men of the garrison responded to Jonathan and his armor bearer: "Come up and fight us, and we will show you something." Jonathan then told his armor bearer, "Follow me, for the LORD has given them into Israel's control."

Saul told the people who were with him, "Do a roll call and see who has left us." They did a roll call, and Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there.

Then Saul told the LORD God of Israel, "Judge us properly." Jonathan and Saul were selected, but the army was cleared.

If he's able to fight me and strike me down, then we will become your servants; but if I prevail against him and strike him down, then you will become our servants and serve us."

As for the matter about which you and I spoke, remember that the LORD is a witness between us forever."

Jonathan told David, "Go in peace since both of us swore in the name of the LORD: "May the LORD be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.'" Then David got up and left, while Jonathan went to the city.

David answered the priest, saying to him, "Indeed, women were kept from us as is usual whenever I go out on a mission, and the equipment of the young men is consecrated even when it's an ordinary journey, so how much more is their equipment consecrated today?"

People from Ziph came up to Saul at Gibeah and informed him, "David is hiding with us in the strongholds in Horesh and on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon, isn't he?

Now, I've heard that the sheep shearers are with you. Now, your shepherds have been with us. We didn't harm them, and they didn't miss anything all the time they were in Carmel.

The men were very good to us. They didn't harm us, and we didn't miss anything all the time we moved around with them when we were in the field.

They were a wall around us both day and night, all the time we were with them taking care of the sheep.

Then David sent word to Abigail that he would take her as his wife. David's servants went to Abigail at Carmel and told her, "David sent us to you to take you to him as his wife."

But the Philistine leaders were angry with him, so they pleaded with him, "Send the man back! Let him return to the place you assigned him. He mustn't go into battle with us. Otherwise, he may become our adversary in the battle! How could there be a better way for this fellow to reconcile himself with his lord? Wouldn't it be with the heads of these men?

Achish answered David, "I know that I'm pleased with you. You're like an angel of God. But the Philistine leaders have said, "He mustn't go into battle with us.'

At this point, all the wicked and worthless men of the group who had gone with David answered, "Because they didn't go with us, we won't give them any of the spoil that we recovered, except that each person may take his wife and his children and go."

David said, "No, you won't do this, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. He guarded us and gave the raiding party that came against us into our hand.

The messenger told David, "The men surprised us and attacked us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate.

So Absalom responded, "If you aren't coming, please allow my brother Amnon to accompany us." The king asked, "Why should he go with you?"

Perhaps the king will listen and deliver his humble servant from the oppression of the man who intends to eliminate both me and my son from what God has apportioned to us!'

So David told all of his staff who were with him in Jerusalem, "Let's get up and get out of here! Otherwise, none of us will escape from Absalom. Hurry, or he'll overtake us quickly, bring disaster on all of us, and execute the inhabitants of the city!"

Then the king suggested to Ittai the Gittite, "Why should you have to go with us? Return and stay with the new king, since you're a foreigner and exile. Stay where you want to stay.

It seems only yesterday that you arrived, so should I make you wander around with us while I go wherever I can? Go back, and take your brothers with you. May gracious love and truth accompany you!"

"No way!" his army responded. "If we have to retreat from the battle, Absalom's men won't care about us. Even if half of us die, they won't care about us. But you are worth 10,000 of us. The best thing you can do for us is to remain in the city."

You love those who hate you and hate those who love you! You've made it abundantly clear today that your officers and the men under them mean nothing to you! I've learned today that you would rather have Absalom alive today and all the rest of us dead!

Meanwhile, the Israelis had run away back to their own homes. Throughout the tribes of Israel, everyone was quarreling with one another: "The king delivered us from the domination of our enemies"." "He's the one who rescued us from Philistine control"." "Now he's fleeing the country because of Absalom"!"

In response, the king told him, "What's the point of us talking anymore? My decision is that you and Ziba divide the fields."

Everybody from Judah shouted to the men from Israel, "We did this because the king is closely related to us. So why are you angry about this? Have we lived off the king's expense? Have we appropriated anything for ourselves?"