The <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> took him outside and said, &#8220;Gaze into the sky and count the stars &#8211; if you are able to count them!&#8221; Then he said to him, &#8220;So will your descendants be.&#8221;p>

and had a dream.<n id="1" /> He saw<n id="2" /> a stairway<n id="3" /> erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">Then the <sc>Lordsc> said to Moses and Aaron, &#8220;Take handfuls of soot<n id="2" /> from a furnace, and have Moses throw it<n id="3" /> into the air while Pharaoh is watching.<n id="4" />

So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh, Moses threw it into the air, and it caused festering boils to break out on both people and animals.p>

It is not in heaven, as though one must say, &#8220;Who will go up to heaven to get it for us and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?&#8221;

As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s messenger went up in it<n id="1" /> while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown<n id="2" /> to the ground.p>

But when the signal, a pillar of smoke, began to rise up from the city, the Benjaminites turned around and saw the whole city going up in a cloud of smoke that rose high into the sky.<n id="1" />

But when they gazed intently<n id="1" /> from a distance but did not recognize<n id="2" /> him, they began to weep loudly. Each of them tore his robes, and they threw dust into the air over their heads.<n id="3" />

When you look up<n id="1" /> to the sky<n id="2" /> and see the sun, moon, and stars &#8211; the whole heavenly creation<n id="3" /> &#8211; you must not be seduced to worship and serve them,<n id="4" /> for the <sc>Lordsc> your God has assigned<n id="5" /> them to all the people<n id="6" /> of the world.<n id="7" />

When the men of Ai turned around, they saw<n id="1" /> the smoke from the city ascending into the sky and were so shocked they were unable to flee in any direction.<n id="2" /> In the meantime the men who were retreating to the desert turned against their pursuers.

Solomon had made a bronze platform and had placed it in the middle of the enclosure. It was seven and one-half feet<n id="1" /> long, seven and one-half feet<n id="2" /> wide, and four and one-half feet<n id="3" /> high. He stood on it and then got down on his knees in front of the entire assembly of Israel. He spread out his hands toward the sky,