The chariots ¹  race madly ²  through the streets, they rush back and forth ³  in the broad plazas; they look ⁴  like lightning bolts, ⁵  they dash here and there ⁶  like flashes of lightning. ⁷ 

If then I do not know the meaning of a language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.

Does it seem too small a thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel to bring you near to himself, to perform the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the community to minister to them?

You prove to be reliable ¹  to one who is blameless, but you prove to be deceptive ²  to one who is perverse. ³ 

He is a well-watered plant ¹  in ²  the sun, its shoots spread ³  over its garden. ⁴ 

Why should we be regarded as beasts, and considered stupid ¹  in your sight?

For they suffer no pain; ¹  their bodies ²  are strong and well-fed. ³ 

They invade like lumberjacks swinging their axes in a thick forest. ¹ 

Those who think they are wise are as good as dead, ¹  those who think they possess understanding. ² 

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Why do you people ¹  think ²  it is unbelievable ³  that ⁴  God raises the dead?

For such people are false apostles, deceitful ¹  workers, disguising themselves ²  as apostles of Christ.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

You may do whatever seems appropriate to you and your colleagues ¹  with the rest of the silver and the gold, in keeping with the will of your God.

The unbeliever ¹  does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

For if someone comes and proclaims ¹  another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, ²  or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, ³  or a different gospel than the one you accepted, ⁴  you put up with it well enough! ⁵ 

Even though they have the appearance of wisdom ¹  with their self-imposed worship and false humility ²  achieved by an ³  unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. ⁴ 

Do you intend to criticize mere words, and treat ¹  the words of a despairing man as wind?

then you plunge me into a slimy pit ¹  and my own clothes abhor me.