<t /><p class="bodytext">The king summoned all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem.<n id="1" />

<t /><p class="poetry">&#8220;What is mankind<n id="1" /> that you make so much of them,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and that you pay attention<n id="3" /> to them?p>

<p class="poetry">He is wise in heart<n id="1" /> and mighty<n id="2" /> in strength<n id="3" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">who has resisted<n id="4" /> him and remained safe?<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;As for you,<n id="1" /> if you prove faithful,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and if<n id="3" /> you stretch out your hands toward him,<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">You may say,<n id="1" /> &#8216;God stores up a man&#8217;s<n id="2" /> punishment for his children!&#8217;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Instead let him repay<n id="4" /> the man himself<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">so that<n id="6" /> he may know it!p>

<p class="poetry">Why do you contend against him,p> <p class="poetry">that he does not answer all a person&#8217;s<n id="1" /> words?p>

<p class="poetry">Will you rely on it because its strength is great?p> <p class="poetry">Will you commit<n id="1" /> your labor to it?p>

<p class="poetry">Those who look to him for help are happy;p> <p class="poetry">their faces are not ashamed.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">for he is too proudp> <p class="poetry">to recognize and give up his sin.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">The one who digs a pit<n id="1" /> will fall into it;p> <p class="poetry">the one who rolls a stone &#8211; it will come back on him.p>

<p class="bodytext">The king<n id="1" /> sent a captain and his fifty soldiers<n id="2" /> to retrieve Elijah.<n id="3" /> The captain<n id="4" /> went up to him, while he was sitting on the top of a hill.<n id="5" /> He told him, &#8220;Prophet,<n id="6" /> the king says, &#8216;Come down!&#8217;&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> said to him, &#8220;Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> appeared to Abraham<n id="1" /> by the oaks<n id="2" /> of Mamre while<n id="3" /> he was sitting at the entrance<n id="4" /> to his tent during the hottest time of the day.

But the <sc>Lord&#8217;sc>s angel<n id="1" /> called to him from heaven, &#8220;Abraham! Abraham!&#8221; &#8220;Here I am!&#8221; he answered.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Be careful<n id="1" /> never to take my son back there!&#8221; Abraham told him.<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">She said to him, &#8220;I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom Milcah bore to Nahor.<n id="1" />

We have plenty of straw and feed,&#8221; she added,<n id="1" /> &#8220;and room for you<n id="2" /> to spend the night.&#8221;p>

The <sc>Lordsc> appeared to Isaac and said, &#8220;Do not go down to Egypt;<n id="1" /> settle down in the land that I will point out to you.<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">Now Abimelech had come<n id="1" /> to him from Gerar along with<n id="2" /> Ahuzzah his friend<n id="3" /> and Phicol the commander of his army.

Then his father Isaac said to him, &#8220;Come here and kiss me, my son.&#8221;