But some wicked men ¹  said, “How can this man save us?” They despised him and did not even bring him a gift. But Saul said nothing about it. ² 

Now Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, ¹  had a spear ²  that weighed three hundred bronze shekels, ³  and he was armed with a new weapon. ⁴  He had said that he would kill David.

So all the assembly which had returned from the exile constructed temporary shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. Everyone experienced very great joy. ¹ 

For the Lord who rules over all ¹  has already spoken about the two bronze pillars, ²  the large bronze basin called ‘The Sea,’ ³  and the movable bronze stands. ⁴  He has already spoken about the rest of the valuable articles that are left in this city.

Then he went to the gate facing east. He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate as 10½ feet deep. ¹ 

After ¹  he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who owed him one hundred silver coins. ²  So ³  he grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him, ⁴  saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ ⁵ 

But he saw through their hypocrisy and said ¹  to them, “Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius ²  and let me look at it.”

“Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins ¹  and loses ²  one of them, ³  does not light a lamp, sweep ⁴  the house, and search thoroughly until she finds it?

Then ¹  the angel ²  said to me, “These words are reliable ³  and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants ⁴  what must happen soon.”

In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth ¹  day of the twelfth month, ²  Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned ³  King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.

But at the end of the appointed time ¹  I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up ²  toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me. I extolled the Most High, and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever. For his authority is an everlasting authority, and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.

“Seventy weeks ¹  have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to ²  rebellion, to bring sin ³  to completion, ⁴  to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual ⁵  righteousness, to seal up ⁶  the prophetic vision, ⁷  and to anoint a most holy place. ⁸ 

Now after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. ¹  As for the city and the sanctuary, the people of the coming prince will destroy ²  them. But his end will come speedily ³  like a flood. ⁴  Until the end of the war that has been decreed there will be destruction.

(But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight ¹  into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!