Then I will surround my temple<n id="1" /> to protect it like a guard<n id="2" /> from anyone crossing back and forth; so no one will cross over against them anymore as an oppressor, for now I myself have seen it.p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters.<n id="1" /> He said, &#8220;Quick, get out of this place because the <sc>Lordsc> is about to destroy<n id="2" /> the city!&#8221; But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them.<n id="3" />p>

Rachel<n id="1" /> said to her father, &#8220;Don&#8217;t be angry,<n id="2" /> my lord. I cannot stand up<n id="3" /> in your presence because I am having my period.&#8221;<n id="4" /> So he searched thoroughly,<n id="5" /> but did not find the idols.p>

<p class="bodytext">Moses said to the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;See, you have been saying to me, &#8216;Bring this people up,&#8217;<n id="1" /> but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. But you said, &#8216;I know you by name,<n id="2" /> and also you have found favor in my sight.&#8217;

But Aaron spoke to Moses, &#8220;See here!<n id="1" /> Just today they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the <sc>Lordsc> and such things as these have happened to me! If I had eaten a sin offering today would the <sc>Lordsc> have been pleased?&#8221;<n id="2" />

<t /><n id="1" /><p class="bodytext">When Balaam saw that it pleased the <sc>Lordsc> to bless Israel,<n id="2" /> he did not go as at the other times<n id="3" /> to seek for omens,<n id="4" /> but he set his face<n id="5" /> toward the wilderness.

Then I again fell down before the <sc>Lordsc> for forty days and nights; I ate and drank nothing because of all the sin you had committed, doing such evil before the <sc>Lordsc> as to enrage him.

Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the <sc>Lordsc> your God.p>

Thus you must obey the <sc>Lordsc> your God, keeping all his commandments that I am giving<n id="1" /> you today and doing what is right<n id="2" /> before him.<n id="3" />p>

Suppose a man or woman is discovered among you &#8211; in one of your villages<n id="1" /> that the <sc>Lordsc> your God is giving you &#8211; who sins before the Lord your God<n id="2" /> and breaks his covenant

For I know that after I die you will totally<n id="1" /> corrupt yourselves and turn away from the path I have commanded you to walk. Disaster will confront you in the days to come because you will act wickedly<n id="2" /> before the <sc>Lordsc>, inciting him to anger because of your actions.&#8221;<n id="3" />

<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.

The Israelites were satisfied with their report and gave thanks to God.<n id="1" /> They said nothing more about launching an attack to destroy the land in which the Reubenites and Gadites lived.<n id="2" />

But his father and mother said to him, &#8220;Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our<n id="1" /> people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines.&#8221;<n id="2" /> But Samson said to his father, &#8220;Get her for me,<n id="3" /> because she is the right one for me.&#8221;<n id="4" />

Is this not the time of the wheat harvest? I will call on the <sc>Lordsc> so that he makes it thunder and rain. Realize and see what a great sin you have committed before the <sc>Lordsc> by asking for a king for yourselves.&#8221;p>

Achish replied to David, &#8220;I am convinced that you are as reliable<n id="1" /> as the angel of God! However, the leaders of the Philistines have said, &#8216;He must not go up with us in the battle.&#8217;

<p class="bodytext">Then Abner spoke privately<n id="1" /> with the Benjaminites. Abner also went to Hebron to inform David privately<n id="2" /> of all that Israel and the entire house of Benjamin had agreed to.<n id="3" />

When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace.<n id="1" /> She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p>

Why have you shown contempt for the word of the <sc>Lordsc> by doing evil in my<n id="1" /> sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own!<n id="2" /> You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

I am taking the kingdom from him<n id="1" /> because they have<n id="2" /> abandoned me and worshiped the Sidonian goddess Astarte, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom. They have not followed my instructions<n id="3" /> by doing what I approve and obeying my rules and regulations, like Solomon&#8217;s father David did.<n id="4" />