<p class="poetry">Those who hate you<n id="1" /> will be clothed with shame,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and the tent of the wicked will be no more.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I looked for them, but they could not be found.p>

Their father Jacob said to them, &#8220;You are making me childless! Joseph is gone.<n id="1" /> Simeon is gone.<n id="2" /> And now you want to take<n id="3" /> Benjamin! Everything is against me.&#8221;p>

When Jacob saw the look on Laban&#8217;s face, he could tell his attitude toward him had changed.<n id="1" />p>

returned to his brothers, and said, &#8220;The boy isn&#8217;t there! And I, where can I go?&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;So now, when I return to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us &#8211; his very life is bound up in his son&#8217;s life.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">Surely no one knows the future,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and no one can tell another person what will happen.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">In the evening there is sudden terror;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">by morning they vanish.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">This is the fate of those who try to plunder us,p> <p class="poetry">the destiny of those who try to loot us!<n id="3" />p>

&#8220;We will not listen to what you claim the <sc>Lordsc> has spoken to us!<n id="1" />

There he said to them, &#8220;I can tell that your father&#8217;s attitude toward me has changed,<n id="1" /> but the God of my father has been with me.

They replied, &#8220;Your servants are from a family of twelve brothers.<n id="1" /> We are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father at this time,<n id="2" /> and one is no longer alive.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

We are from a family of twelve brothers; we are the sons of one father.<n id="1" /> One is no longer alive,<n id="2" /> and the youngest is with our father at this time<n id="3" /> in the land of Canaan.&#8217;p>

For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn&#8217;t bear to see<n id="1" /> my father&#8217;s pain.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

The angel of the <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> appeared<n id="2" /> to him in<n id="3" /> a flame of fire from within a bush.<n id="4" /> He looked<n id="5" /> &#8211; and<n id="6" /> the bush was ablaze with fire, but it was not being consumed!<n id="7" />

<p class="bodytext">If a person has a stubborn, rebellious son who pays no attention to his father or mother, and they discipline him to no avail,<n id="1" />

They must declare to the elders<n id="1" /> of his city, &#8220;Our son is stubborn and rebellious and pays no attention to what we say &#8211; he is a glutton and drunkard.&#8221;

but with whoever stands with us here today before the <sc>Lordsc> our God as well as those not with us here today.<n id="1" />p>

They waited so long they were embarrassed, but he still did not open the doors of the upper room. Finally they took the key and opened the doors.<n id="1" /> Right before their eyes was their master, sprawled out dead on the floor!<n id="2" />

Well, it just so happened that while your servant was doing this and that, he disappeared.&#8221; The king of Israel said to him, &#8220;Your punishment is already determined by your own testimony.&#8221;<n id="1" />

Yet all of this fails to satisfy me so long as I have to see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king&#8217;s gate.&#8221;p>