Do not lose your courage or become afraid because of the reports that are heard in the land. For a report will come in one year. Another report will follow it in the next. There will be violence in the land with ruler fighting against ruler.”

Disaster after disaster will come, and one rumor after another. They will seek a vision from a prophet; priestly instruction will disappear, along with counsel from the elders.

He does not fear bad news. He ¹  is confident; he trusts ²  in the Lord.

A bright look ¹  brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the body. ² 

Who would have believed ¹  what we ²  just heard? ³  When ⁴  was the Lord’s power ⁵  revealed through him?

In your days of majesty, ¹  was not Sodom your sister a byword in your mouth,

This ought not to be, ¹  my sons! For the report that I hear circulating among the Lord’s people is not good.

Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹  he will receive ²  a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ³  with a sword in his own land.”’”

Like cold water to a weary person, ¹  so is good news from a distant land. ² 

Who is the Lord ¹  trying to teach? To whom is he explaining a message? ²  Those just weaned from milk! Those just taken from their mother’s breast! ³ 

Look, I will take control of his mind; ¹  he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down ²  with a sword in his own land.”’”

I said, ¹  “I have heard a message from the Lord. A messenger has been sent among the nations to say, ‘Gather your armies and march out against her! Prepare to do battle with her!’” ² 

But reports will trouble him from the east and north, and he will set out in a tremendous rage to destroy and wipe out many.

While they were still on their way, the following report reached David: “Absalom has killed all the king’s sons; not one of them is left!”

Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you; indeed, ¹  every morning it will sweep by, it will come through during the day and the night.” ²  When this announcement is understood, it will cause nothing but terror.

Listen! News is coming even now. ¹  The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ²  from a land in the north. ³  It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble, places where only jackals live.

The Lord spoke ¹  about Damascus. ²  “The people of Hamath and Arpad ³  will be dismayed because they have heard bad news. Their courage will melt away because of worry. Their hearts will not be able to rest. ⁴ 

The vision ¹  that Obadiah ²  saw. ³  The Lord God ⁴  says this concerning ⁵  Edom: ⁶ We have heard a report from the Lord. An envoy was sent among the nations, saying, ⁷  “Arise! Let us make war against Edom!” ⁸ 

His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas, was pregnant and close to giving birth. When she heard that the ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she doubled over and gave birth. But her labor pains were too much for her.

Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to get away, he fell and was injured. ¹  Mephibosheth was his name.