So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried and they tied him up with them.

May the Lord enable each of you to find ¹  security ²  in the home of a new husband!” ³  Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept loudly. ⁴ 

He made storerooms for the harvest of grain, wine, and olive oil, and stalls for all his various kinds of livestock and his flocks. ¹ 

“But there is hope for ¹  a tree: ²  If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

Now they come into being, ¹  not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, ²  I know about them.’

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; ¹  they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you so that my covenant ¹  may continue to be with Levi,” says the Lord who rules over all.

No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, because the patch will pull away from the garment and the tear will be worse.

Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

They served only for matters of food and drink ¹  and various washings; they are external regulations ²  imposed until the new order came. ³ 

When the edict was issued, ¹  the Israelites freely contributed ²  the initial portion of their grain, wine, olive oil, honey, and all the produce of their fields. They brought a tenth of everything, which added up to a huge amount.

Because of the long distance you must travel, you get tired, ¹  but you do not say, ‘I give up.’ ²  You get renewed energy, ³  so you don’t collapse. ⁴ 

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. ¹ 

Do not be conformed ¹  to this present world, ²  but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve ³  what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

But from those who were influential ¹  (whatever they were makes no difference to me; God shows no favoritism between people ² ) – those influential leaders ³  added ⁴  nothing to my message. ⁵ 

at the scent ¹  of water it will flourish ²  and put forth ³  shoots like a new plant.

When you send your life-giving breath, they are created, and you replenish the surface of the ground.

For indeed, what had been glorious now ¹  has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. ² 

He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, ¹  with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.

In the presence of the Lord your God you must eat from the tithe of your grain, your new wine, ¹  your olive oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the place he chooses to locate his name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always.