For our leaders ¹  are stupid. They have not sought the Lord’s advice. ²  So they do not act wisely, and the people they are responsible for ³  have all been scattered.

Then Daniel spoke with prudent counsel ¹  to Arioch, who was in charge of the king’s executioners and who had gone out to execute the wise men of Babylon.

“Everyone ¹  who hears these words of mine and does them is like ²  a wise man ³  who built his house on rock.

The ¹  foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’

‘No,’ they replied. ¹  ‘There won’t be enough for you and for us. Go instead to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

The Lord replied, ¹  “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, ²  whom the master puts in charge of his household servants, ³  to give them their allowance of food at the proper time?

who was with the proconsul ¹  Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. The proconsul ²  summoned ³  Barnabas and Saul and wanted to hear ⁴  the word of God.

The overseer ¹  then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, ²  temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher,

Instead he must be hospitable, devoted to what is good, sensible, upright, devout, and self-controlled.

So be sure to do them, because this will testify of your wise understanding ¹  to the people who will learn of all these statutes and say, “Indeed, this great nation is a very wise ²  people.”

Even some of the wise will stumble, resulting in their refinement, purification, and cleansing until the time of the end, for it is still for the appointed time.