and serves in the name of the Lord his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord.

You rescue me from a hostile army; ¹  you preserve me as a leader of nations; people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ² 

Now, don’t be stubborn ¹  like your fathers! Submit ²  to the Lord and come to his sanctuary which he has permanently consecrated. Serve the Lord your God so that he might relent from his raging anger. ³ 

You rescue me from a hostile army; ¹  you make me ²  a leader of nations; people over whom I had no authority are now my subjects. ³ 

“Indeed, ¹  long ago you threw off my authority and refused to be subject to me. ²  You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ³  Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill and under every green tree, like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ⁴ 

“‘As for you, O house of Israel, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Each of you go and serve your idols, ¹  if you will not listen to me. ²  But my holy name will not be profaned ³  again by your sacrifices ⁴  and your idols.

But there are Jewish men whom you appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon – Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – and these men ¹  have not shown proper respect to you, O king. They don’t serve your gods and they don’t pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.”

Then the kingdom, authority, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be delivered to the people of the holy ones ¹  of the Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; all authorities will serve him and obey him.’

Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another ¹  as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

And there will no longer be any curse, ¹  and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city. ²  His ³  servants ⁴  will worship ⁵  him,

Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really turning to the Lord with all your hearts, remove from among you the foreign gods and the images of Ashtoreth. ¹  Give your hearts to the Lord and serve only him. Then he will deliver you ²  from the hand of the Philistines.”

But suppose a nation or a kingdom will not be subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Suppose it will not submit to the yoke of servitude to ¹  him. I, the Lord, affirm that ²  I will punish that nation. I will use the king of Babylon to punish it ³  with war, ⁴  starvation, and disease until I have destroyed it. ⁵ 

For there on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, all the house of Israel will serve me, all of them ¹  in the land. I will accept them there, and there I will seek your contributions and your choice gifts, with all your holy things.

As he approached the den, he called out to Daniel in a worried voice, ¹  “Daniel, servant of the living God, was your God whom you continually serve able to rescue you from the lions?”

and anoint them just as you anointed their father, so that they may minister as my priests; their anointing will make them a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.”

Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all ¹  lives (whom I serve), ²  if I did not respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah, ³  I would not pay attention to you or acknowledge you. ⁴ 

As for foreigners who become followers of ¹  the Lord and serve him, who love the name of the Lord and want to be his servants – all who observe the Sabbath and do not defile it, and who are faithful to ²  my covenant –

“‘What you plan ¹  will never happen. You say, “We will be ²  like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone.” ³ 

If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow ¹  me, and where I am, my servant will be too. ²  If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, ¹  for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous ²  God, responding to ³  the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations ⁴  of those who reject me, ⁵