A relative ¹  offended ²  is harder to reach than ³  a strong city, and disputes are like the barred gates ⁴  of a fortified citadel. ⁵ 

I have made your forehead harder than flint – like diamond! ¹  Do not fear them or be terrified of the looks they give you, ²  for they are a rebellious house.”

Israel’s power continued to overwhelm ¹  King Jabin of Canaan until they did away with ²  him. ³ 

Lord, I know you look for faithfulness. ¹  But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. ²  Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected. They have become as hardheaded as a rock. ³  They refuse to change their ways. ⁴ 

Make the work harder ¹  for the men so they will keep at it ²  and pay no attention to lying words!” ³ 

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.

and they ¹  made the Israelites serve rigorously. ² 

Pride ¹  goes ²  before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. ³ 

Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer.

For this reason the Jewish leaders ¹  were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

A laborer’s ¹  appetite ²  works on his behalf, ³  for his hunger ⁴  urges him to work. ⁵ 

I will make human beings more scarce than pure gold, and people more scarce ¹  than gold from Ophir.

But the more the Egyptians ¹  oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread. ²  As a result the Egyptians loathed ³  the Israelites,

From the blood of the slain, from the fat of warriors, the bow of Jonathan was not turned away. The sword of Saul never returned ¹  empty.

If an iron axhead ¹  is blunt and a workman ²  does not sharpen ³  its edge, ⁴  he must exert a great deal of effort; ⁵  so wisdom has the advantage of giving success.

Yet she increased her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth when she engaged in prostitution in the land of Egypt.

Instead, they tried to row ¹  back to land, ²  but they were not able to do so ³  because the storm kept growing worse and worse. ⁴ 

Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. ¹ 

And in his anguish ¹  he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.] ²