I am not worthy of all the faithful love<n id="1" /> you have shown<n id="2" /> your servant. With only my walking stick<n id="3" /> I crossed the Jordan,<n id="4" /> but now I have become two camps.

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> told Joshua, &#8220;This very day I will begin to honor you before all Israel<n id="1" /> so they will know that I am with you just as I was with Moses.

Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again.<n id="1" /> Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons,<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">But David said to Achish, &#8220;What have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day that I first came into your presence until the present time, that I shouldn&#8217;t go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?&#8221;

Please,<n id="1" /> O Lord, listen attentively<n id="2" /> to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect<n id="3" /> to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me<n id="4" /> in the presence of this man.&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">Now<n id="5" /> I was cupbearer for the king.p>

<p class="bodytext">During all this time I was not in Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I had gone back to the king. After some time<n id="2" /> I had requested leave of the king,

<p class="poetry">You people of this generation,p> <p class="poetry">listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?p> <p class="poetry">Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Why then do you<n id="2" /> say, &#8216;We are free to wander.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">We will not come to you any more?&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">They will come back shedding tears of contrition.p> <p class="poetry">I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will lead them besides streams of water,p> <p class="poetry">along smooth paths where they will never stumble.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I will do this because I am Israel&#8217;s father;p> <p class="poetry">Ephraim<n id="3" /> is my firstborn son.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">While I was contemplating all this,<n id="1" /> a male goat<n id="2" /> was coming from the west over the surface of all the land<n id="3" /> without touching the ground. This goat had a conspicuous horn<n id="4" /> between its eyes.