לוּ

And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live under Your blessing!”

…and said to Ephron in their presence, “If you will please listen to me, I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me, so that I may bury my dead there.”

“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.”

All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

The people quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had perished with our brothers before the LORD!

Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now!”

If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

“O, Lord GOD,” Joshua said, “why did You ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to be destroyed? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!

“They were my brothers,” Gideon replied, “the sons of my mother! As surely as the LORD lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

But his wife replied, “If the LORD had intended to kill us, He would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things or spoken to us this way.”

How much better it would have been if the troops had eaten freely today from the plunder they took from their enemies! Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been much greater?”

The man replied, “Even if a thousand shekels of silver were weighed out into my hands, I would not raise my hand against the son of the king. For we heard the king command you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’

“If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales.

I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways,

If only you had paid attention to My commandments, your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like waves of the sea.

If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,

If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!