When the messengers returned to the king, ¹  he asked them, “Why have you returned?”

When the messengers came, they found only the idol on the bed and the quilt made of goat’s hair at its head.

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while ¹  Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. ²  When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.

The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him.”

When the messengers went to Gibeah (where Saul lived) ¹  and informed the people of these matters, all the people wept loudly. ² 

Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me on his bed so I can kill him.”

The messengers came again and said, “This is what Ben Hadad says, ‘I sent this message to you, “You must give me your silver, gold, wives, and sons.”

So they tracked them ¹  as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste. ²  The scouts ³  went back and told the king.

Hezekiah took the letter ¹  from the messengers and read it. ²  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.

Hezekiah took the letter ¹  from the messengers and read it. ²  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord.

At dawn ¹  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ²  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ³ 

The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, ¹  except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies ²  we sent.

Yet Joshua spared ¹  Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, ²  and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel ³  to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. ⁴ 

He took a pair ¹  of oxen and cut them up. Then he sent the pieces throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, who said, “Whoever does not go out after Saul and after Samuel should expect this to be done to his oxen!” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out as one army. ² 

They said to the messengers who had come, “Here’s what you should say to the men of Jabesh Gilead: ‘Tomorrow deliverance will come to you when the sun is fully up.’” When the messengers went and told the men of Jabesh Gilead, they were happy.

In the spring of the year, at the time when kings ¹  normally conduct wars, ²  David sent out Joab with his officers ³  and the entire Israelite army. ⁴  They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. ⁵ 

So he said to the messengers of Ben Hadad, “Say this to my master, the king, ‘I will give you everything you demanded at first from your servant, but I am unable to agree to this latest demand.’” ¹  So the messengers went back and gave their report.