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Technically what the title says. 😊 Post your opening paragraph from your work in progress here, and we’ll help each other improve and polish until that hook is practically gleaming (because I’m sure everyone here wants to get published, right?). So, what do you say? Are you up for it?

😉

Here’s mine:

“Oaths were not meant to be broken.

Ask Yahweh, the God of our fathers. When He spoke to our ancestors from Mount Sinai, gave them the Decalogue and made them swear before Him that they would serve Him now and when they entered Canaan, His intent was not for some of us to become apostates, worshipping Ba’al and Ashtoret. His intent was for us to trust Him, to serve Him wholeheartedly because He was Yahweh, the one and only El Shaddai.

How many oaths have been broken even after our God said otherwise.

Akhan, a warrior in Isra’el, took a Babylonian garment from the ruins of Jericho and caused our entire army to be defeated by the troops of Ai. Yahweh had commanded that all the spoils be destroyed or dedicated to His use. Akhan ignored His warning. The people stoned him as a result, his dead body staining the pile of rocks erected above him a crimson red.

Bil’am, a prophet among our race, sold his soul for money provided to him by the pagan king Balak of Mo’av. His thirst for wealth caused him to betray our people, bringing women from both Mo’av and Midyan to ensnare the leaders not only with heathen sacrifices to their gods but their skill in bed.

Shimshon, the strongest of our judges, broke his Nazirite vow by marrying a woman of P’listia, drinking the fruit of the vine, touching dead bodies and, in the last act of rebellion, let another woman, a native of the valley of Sorek that was renown for its vineyards, know the secret of his strength. She used it to her advantage; hours later his seven locks lay forgotten on the ground, along with his oath and his strength.

Shaul, the first king of Isra’el, disobeyed direct orders from Yahweh to exterminate the Amalekites, tried to kill Yahweh’s Anointed, Daveed, and went to a sorceress to summon the demon that called itself Sh’muel. The oath that the Lord had sworn to him to keep his descendants on the throne forever was annulled, and another man took his place, a man the late prophet said was more worthy than he.

Oaths were not meant to be broken, yet they have been so many times.

I am the embodiment of an oath.”

Any feedback to offer? This is for my WIP, Oath, the first book in my series Of Wives And Women, a HF.