Remember what ¹  I told you, ‘A slave ²  is not greater than his master.’ ³  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed ⁴  my word, they will obey ⁵  yours too.

So if someone cleanses himself of such behavior, ¹  he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart, useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

Then God said, “Let us make ¹  humankind ²  in our image, after our likeness, ³  so they may rule ⁴  over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, ⁵  and over all the creatures that move ⁶  on the earth.”

He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night ¹  and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” ²  “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” ³ 

Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

Then David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bicri will cause greater disaster for us than Absalom did! Take your lord’s servants and pursue him. Otherwise he will secure ¹  fortified cities for himself and get away from us.”

Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. ¹  They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.

It ¹  will become a visual reminder in the land of Egypt of ²  the Lord who commands armies. When they cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a deliverer and defender ³  who will rescue them.

Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹  the master as well as the servant, ²  the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ³  the seller as well as the buyer, ⁴  the borrower as well as the lender, ⁵  the creditor as well as the debtor. ⁶ 

I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ¹  who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’ You made your back like the ground, and like the street for those who walked over you.”

The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the earth will yield its crops. They will live securely on their land; they will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them.

The following is a record of what Amos prophesied. ¹  He ²  was one of the herdsmen from Tekoa. These prophecies about Israel were revealed to him ³  during the time of ⁴  King Uzziah of Judah and ⁵  King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake. ⁶ 

(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

But the leaders of the Philistines became angry with him and said ¹  to him, “Send the man back! Let him return to the place that you assigned him! Don’t let him go down with us into the battle, for he might become ²  our adversary in the battle. What better way to please his lord than with the heads of these men? ³