אַף

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

And the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’

Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there?

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: There were three baskets of white bread on my head.

…then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

…then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

…then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

…and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

…then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”

Like the Anakites, they were also regarded as Rephaim, though the Moabites called them Emites.

(That too was regarded as the land of the Rephaim, who used to live there, though the Ammonites called them Zamzummites.

…then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.

For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death!

Surely You love the people; all the holy ones are in Your hand, and they sit down at Your feet; each receives Your words—

Concerning Gad he said: “Blessed is he who enlarges the domain of Gad! He lies down like a lion and tears off an arm or a head.

So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.

Her wisest ladies answer; indeed she keeps telling herself,

The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

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?”

David answered, “Women have indeed been kept from us, as is usual when I set out. And the bodies of the young men are holy even on common missions. How much more so today!”

But David’s men said to him, “Look, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

How much more, when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house and on his own bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hands and remove you from the earth!”

Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son, my own flesh and blood, seeks my life. How much more, then, this Benjamite! Leave him alone and let him curse me, for the LORD has told him so.

Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel-beth-maacah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him.

But will God indeed dwell upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the waters. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. And when he had struck the waters, they parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over.

Naaman’s servants, however, approached him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’?”

…and Mikloth, who was the father of Shimeah. They too lived alongside their relatives in Jerusalem.

Mikloth was the father of Shimeam. They too lived alongside their relatives in Jerusalem.

…tremble before Him, all the earth. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain You, much less this temple I have built.

Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have forsaken Me; therefore, I have forsaken you into the hand of Shishak.’”

So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, and do not let him mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand!”

I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me, and what the king had said to me. “Let us start rebuilding,” they replied, and they set their hands to this good work.

Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,

In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

“What is more,” Haman added, “Queen Esther invited no one but me to join the king at the banquet she prepared, and I am invited back tomorrow along with the king.

…how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!

You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.

How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him?

Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?

But you even undermine the fear of God and hinder meditation before Him.

…how much less man, who is vile and corrupt, who drinks injustice like water?

Even if I have truly gone astray, my error concerns me alone.