King of Sodom (to Abram): Give me the people, and you can take all of the spoils for yourself.

Moses: Please, Lord, I am not a talented speaker. I have never been good with words. I wasn’t when I was younger and I haven’t gotten any better since You revealed Yourself to me. I stutter and stammer. My words get all twisted.

So once again Moses and Aaron went to see Pharaoh. Moses and Aaron: The Eternal, the God of the Hebrews, has a message for you: “How long do you plan to resist Me and refuse to humble yourself before Me? Release My people, so that they can go and serve Me in the desert.

Eternal One (to Moses): To more easily get the people’s attention and to summon the people and notify the people that they should break camp, make yourself two trumpets out of fine, hammered silver.

You see, the Eternal your God is going to give you an extensive territory as He’s promised. You may be living at some distance from the place where He chooses to put His name. And there will be times when you say to yourself, “I’m going to have some meat—that’s what I’m craving!” Go right ahead—as often as you wish. If you take from one of the domesticated animals the Eternal has given you from your herd or your flock and eat it in your own town, I’m telling you it’s all right to do that.

Don’t take any of the goods for yourself because they have been banned; destroy everything. Then the Eternal will stop being so furiously angry. He’ll show you mercy and compassion; and you’ll have many descendants, just as He promised your ancestors,

Don’t eat any meat from an animal you find dead of natural causes because its blood remains in the meat. You may give it to the foreigners in your city, and they may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreign merchant. But don’t eat it yourself; you are people who have been set apart for the Eternal your God. Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t anoint yourself with oil because the trees will be diseased and the olives will drop off before they ripen.

When the Levite, his mistress, and his servant got up to go, the woman’s father tried to persuade them. The Woman’s Father: Look, it’s almost evening. The day is almost gone. Why don’t you stay another night and enjoy yourself? Tomorrow you can rise early and begin your trip home.

Israelites: Watch, and when the young women of Shiloh come out to participate in the dances, dash out, grab yourself a wife, and take her back home to Benjamin.

Bathe and perfume yourself. Put on your best dress, then go down onto the threshing floor. Be careful, though. Don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.

Saul dispatched some of his officers to watch David’s house so that they could kill him the next day. David’s wife Michal warned him. Michal: If you don’t save yourself tonight, tomorrow morning you’ll be killed.

On the day after tomorrow, you will be greatly missed. On that day, quickly go down to that place where you hid yourself the first time and wait by the stone Ezel.

Now, my lord, as the Eternal One lives and as you live, since the Eternal has kept you from senseless killing and from seizing vengeance yourself, may your enemies and all who seek to harm you, my lord, be like Nabal.

He brought a wise woman from Tekoa and instructed her. Joab: Act like you are in mourning. Wear mourning garments, don’t anoint yourself with sweet-smelling oils, but act like a woman who has been mourning for someone dead for a long time.

No, my counsel is to take your time. Gather the people of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, so that you have a large army, like the grains of sand on the beach, and lead them into battle yourself.

I am 80 years old today. My judgment is not as good as it used to be. I can’t taste my food, enjoy my drink, or even hear the pleasant singing of men and women. So why should you burden yourself with me, my lord and king?

If you then give yourself to Me and heed all My commands, honor My laws, and live by My way just as My servant David did, then I will be near to you and will build you a great dynasty like the one I built for David. Israel will be yours; I will hand it over to you.

I stripped the kingdom out from under the house of David, and I handed it over to you. But you have committed evil which exceeds those before you; and you have not been an honorable servant like David, for he honored My laws and gave his entire heart to Me. Unlike you, he sought to do My will. You have made yourself other gods and cast false idols in their honor. You have aroused My wrath by putting Me behind you.

When it was time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah called out to the Eternal. Elijah (praying): Eternal One—God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel—reveal Yourself on this day as Israel’s God. Make it known that I serve You and have done all this because You commanded it of me.

The prophet approached Israel’s king. Prophet: Go, and keep yourself fit because at the end of the year, Aram’s king is going to come back and wage war against you. Prepare for what is to come.

The wife of one of the prophets’ disciples pleaded with Elisha. Woman: My husband who served you is now dead. He greatly feared the Eternal. You yourself know this to be true. The creditor is now trying to take away my only two children and make them into slaves.

Elisha did not show his face to Naaman, but instead sent instructions: “Wash yourself in the Jordan River seven times. The waters will heal you, and your skin will be back to normal. You will be cleansed.”

Later his servants approached and spoke to him with respect. Naaman’s Servants: Father, if the prophet had told you to do some important thing, wouldn’t you have done what he asked? Why is it difficult for you to follow his instructions when he tells you, “Bathe yourself in the Jordan River, and be cleansed”?

You have crushed Edom, but your heart has become swollen with pride. Take pleasure in what you have already won, and delight in your home for a while. Why would you want to stir up unnecessary troubles and have yourself and Judah taste defeat?