and say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

Their wicked deeds do not allow them to return to their God; because a spirit of idolatry ¹  controls their heart, ²  and they do not acknowledge the Lord.

When I please, ¹  I will discipline them; ²  I will gather nations together to attack them, ³  to bind them in chains ⁴  for their two sins. ⁵ 

To you, O Lord, I call out for help, ¹  for fire ²  has burned up ³  the grassy pastures, ⁴  flames have razed ⁵  all the trees in the fields.

Amos ¹  said: “The Lord comes roaring ²  out of Zion; from Jerusalem ³  he comes bellowing! ⁴  The shepherds’ pastures wilt; ⁵  the summit of Carmel ⁶  withers.” ⁷ 

Do not plan evil in your hearts against one another. Do not favor a false oath – these are all things that I hate,’ says the Lord.”

Now John wore clothing made from camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his diet consisted of locusts and wild honey. ¹ 

John wore a garment made of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. ¹ 

When he was in Galilee, they had followed him and given him support. ¹  Many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem ²  were there too.

He ¹  was a devout, God-fearing man, ²  as was all his household; he did many acts of charity for the people ³  and prayed to God regularly.

For in this earthly house ¹  we groan, because we desire to put on ²  our heavenly dwelling,

envying, ¹  murder, ²  drunkenness, carousing, ³  and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross!

And besides that, going around ¹  from house to house they learn to be lazy, ²  and they are not only lazy, but also gossips and busybodies, talking about things they should not. ³ 

But when he again brings ¹  his firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him!” ² 

On this topic we have much to say ¹  and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish ²  in hearing.

But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

You ought to say instead, ¹  “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.”

The Lord ¹  is my strength and my song, ²  and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, ³  my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

This is so that ¹  the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field ²  to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent to the priest and sacrifice them there as peace offering sacrifices to the Lord.