“Agreed!” said Laban, “It will be as you say.” ¹ 

I wish that they were wise and could understand this, and that they could comprehend what will happen to them.”

Abraham said to God, “O that ¹  Ishmael might live before you!” ² 

“Oh, ¹  if only my grief ²  could be weighed, ³  and my misfortune laid ⁴  on the scales too! ⁵ 

Nor is there an arbiter ¹  between us, who ²  might lay ³  his hand on us both, ⁴ 

If only my people would obey me! ¹  If only Israel would keep my commands! ² 

The people contended ¹  with Moses, saying, ²  “If only ³  we had died when our brothers died before the Lord!

If only you had obeyed my ¹  commandments, prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, ²  deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea. ³ 

“Suppose I were to send wild animals through the land and kill its children, leaving it desolate, without travelers due to the wild animals.

And all the Israelites murmured ¹  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ²  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ³  in this wilderness!

And Balaam said to the donkey, “You have made me look stupid; I wish ¹  there were a sword in my hand, for I would kill you right now.”

He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. I swear, ¹  as surely as the Lord is alive, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

Certainly if the army had eaten some of the enemies’ provisions that they came across today, would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?”

I also could speak ¹  like you, if ²  you were in my place; I could pile up ³  words against you and I could shake my head at you. ⁴ 

If a lying windbag should come and say, ¹  ‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ²  he would be just the right preacher for these people! ³ 

and said to Ephron in their hearing, “Hear me, if you will. I pay ¹  to you the price ²  of the field. Take it from me so that I may ³  bury my dead there.”

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge and wants to repay ¹  us in full ²  for all the harm ³  we did to him?”

Joshua prayed, ¹  “O, Master, Lord! Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites so they could destroy us?

But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. ¹  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”

You seem to love your enemies and hate your friends! For you have as much as declared today that leaders and servants don’t matter to you. I realize now ¹  that if ²  Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, ³  it would be all right with you.