The local inhabitants ¹  showed us extraordinary ²  kindness, for they built a fire and welcomed us all because it had started to rain ³  and was cold.

¹ I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me ²  in the Holy Spirit –

Why not? Because they pursued ¹  it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. ²  They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³ 

just as it is written, “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, ¹  yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.” ² 

Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

In fact he became so ill that he nearly died. ¹  But God showed mercy to him – and not to him only, but also to me – so that I would not have grief on top of grief.

Without father, without mother, without genealogy, he has neither beginning of days nor end of life but is like the son of God, and he remains a priest for all time.

So too the tongue is a small part of the body, ¹  yet it has great pretensions. ²  Think ³  how small a flame sets a huge forest ablaze.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, ¹  the heavens will disappear ²  with a horrific noise, ³  and the celestial bodies ⁴  will melt away ⁵  in a blaze, ⁶  and the earth and every deed done on it ⁷  will be laid bare. ⁸ 

Then ¹  I looked when the Lamb opened the sixth seal, and a huge ²  earthquake took place; the sun became as black as sackcloth made of hair, ³  and the full moon became blood red; ⁴ 

So ¹  the angel swung his sickle over the earth and gathered the grapes from the vineyard ²  of the earth and tossed them into the great ³  winepress of the wrath of God.

Then ¹  I saw another great and astounding sign in heaven: seven angels who have seven final plagues ²  (they are final because in them God’s anger is completed).

Then ¹  there were flashes of lightning, roaring, ²  and crashes of thunder, and there was a tremendous earthquake – an earthquake unequaled since humanity ³  has been on the earth, so tremendous was that earthquake.

So ¹  he took me away in the Spirit ²  to a huge, majestic mountain ³  and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.

Asa prayed ¹  to the Lord his God: “O Lord, there is no one but you who can help the weak when they are vastly outnumbered. ²  Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you and have marched on your behalf against this huge army. ³  O Lord our God, don’t let men prevail against you!” ⁴ 

God created the great sea creatures ¹  and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. ¹  I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. ²  He will become the father of twelve princes; ³  I will make him into a great nation.

He saw ¹  in the field a well with ²  three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now ³  a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

And the people stayed up ¹  all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, ²  and they spread them out ³  for themselves all around the camp.

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, ¹  forgiving iniquity and transgression, ²  but by no means clearing ³  the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.’ ⁴