Princes also sit [and] speak against me, [But] Your servant meditates on Your statutes.

Many [are] my persecutors and my enemies, [Yet] I do not turn from Your testimonies.

"Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this [fellow] to play the madman in my presence? Shall this [fellow] come into my house?"

And David said to Saul: "Why do you listen to the words of men who say, 'Indeed David seeks your harm'?

"Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that [there is] neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it.

"As the proverb of the ancients says, 'Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.' But my hand shall not be against you.

"Therefore let the LORD be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand."

And he said, "Why does my lord thus pursue his servant? For what have I done, or what evil [is] in my hand?

"But [this happened] that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'

Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah

"[There is] no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you [are] his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"

Then Joseph said to them the third day, "Do this and live, [for] I fear God:

"because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard [you,"] says the LORD.

But the former governors who [were] before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

For destruction [from] God [is] a terror to me, And because of His magnificence I cannot endure.

For all those [things] My hand has made, And all those [things] exist," Says the LORD. "But on this [one] will I look: On [him who is] poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.

And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, [that the king] cut it with the scribe's knife and cast [it] into the fire that [was] on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that [was] on the hearth.

Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them.