“They cry, ¹  ‘Harvest time has come and gone, and the summer is over, ²  and still we have not been delivered.’

Then I said to the people of Judah, ¹  “Listen and pay attention! Do not be arrogant! For the Lord has spoken.

As a result, ¹  death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. ² 

in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, ¹  in troubles, ²  in sleepless nights, in hunger,

For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the sake of the truth.

We are all the sons of one man; we are honest men! Your servants are not spies.”

Then the Benjaminites said, “They are defeated just as before.” But the Israelites said, “Let’s retreat ¹  and lure them ²  away from the city into the main roads.”

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 

we will not hide from their ¹  descendants. We will tell the next generation about the Lord’s praiseworthy acts, ²  about his strength and the amazing things he has done.

Yes, as your judgments unfold, ¹  O Lord, we wait for you. We desire your fame and reputation to grow. ² 

“This is what Hezekiah says: ¹  ‘This is a day of distress, insults, ²  and humiliation, ³  as when a baby is ready to leave the birth canal, but the mother lacks the strength to push it through. ⁴ 

For this reason deliverance ¹  is far from us ²  and salvation does not reach us. We wait for light, ³  but see only darkness; ⁴  we wait for ⁵  a bright light, ⁶  but live ⁷  in deep darkness. ⁸ 

The people cry out, ¹  “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! ²  Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!

You must not say, ‘No, we will not stay. Instead we will go and live in the land of Egypt where we will not face war, ¹  or hear the enemy’s trumpet calls, ²  or starve for lack of food.’ ³ 

They say, ¹  ‘The time is not near to build houses; ²  the city ³  is a cooking pot ⁴  and we are the meat in it.’

“‘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 

and don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!

I do not mean that we rule over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because by faith you stand firm. ¹ 

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? ¹