At whom are you laughing? At whom are you opening your mouth and sticking out your tongue? You are the children of rebels, the offspring of liars, ¹ 

“My portion is the Lord,” I have said to myself, ¹  so I will put my hope in him.

For the king trusts ¹  in the Lord, and because of the sovereign Lord’s ²  faithfulness he is not upended. ³ 

The end of a matter ¹  is better than its beginning; likewise, patience ²  is better than pride. ³ 

I will put hooks in your jaws and stick the fish of your waterways to your scales. I will haul you up from the midst of your waterways, and all the fish of your waterways will stick to your scales.

Then the guard ¹  cries out: “On the watchtower, O sovereign master, ²  I stand all day long; at my post I am stationed every night.

Then the Lord said, “You have observed correctly. This means ¹  I am watching to make sure my threats are carried out.” ² 

But I will keep watching for the Lord; I will wait for the God who delivers me. My God will hear my lament. ¹ 

Indeed, as long as I am in this tabernacle, ¹  I consider it right to stir you up by way of a reminder,

So all the men of Israel deserted ¹  David and followed Sheba son of Bicri. But the men of Judah stuck by their king all the way from the Jordan River ²  to Jerusalem. ³ 

But as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not rejected him. Aaron’s descendants serve as the Lord’s priests and the Levites assist them with the work. ¹ 

In the past I saw to it that they were uprooted and torn down, that they were destroyed and demolished. But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ² 

ח (Khet) Now their appearance ¹  is darker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it is dried up, like tree bark.

Wherever the spirit ¹  would go, they would go, ²  and the wheels would rise up beside them because the spirit ³  of the living being was in the wheel.

But as for the seed that landed on good soil, these are the ones who, after hearing ¹  the word, cling to it ²  with an honest and good ³  heart, and bear fruit with steadfast endurance. ⁴ 

Who is the one who will condemn? Christ ¹  is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us.

But we will not boast beyond certain limits, ¹  but will confine our boasting ²  according to the limits of the work to which God has appointed us, ³  that reaches even as far as you.

I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison ¹  to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

These words of Ish-bosheth really angered Abner and he said, “Am I the head of a dog that belongs to Judah? This very day I am demonstrating ¹  loyalty to the house of Saul your father and to his relatives ²  and his friends! I have not betrayed you into the hand of David. Yet you have accused me of sinning with this woman today! ³ 

I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ¹  I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ²  I will turn the darkness in front of them into light, and level out the rough ground. ³  This is what I will do for them. I will not abandon them.