They ¹  tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them.

Now some of the experts in the law ¹  were sitting there, turning these things over in their minds: ² 

Now the Jewish feast of Passover ¹  was near, and many people went up to Jerusalem ²  from the rural areas before the Passover to cleanse themselves ritually. ³ 

(Now the slaves ¹  and the guards ²  were standing around a charcoal fire they had made, warming themselves because it was cold. ³  Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.) ⁴ 

For whenever the Gentiles, ¹  who do not have the law, do by nature ²  the things required by the law, ³  these who do not have the law are a law to themselves.

For the love of money is the root ¹  of all evils. ²  Some people in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains.

In this way they will save up ¹  a treasure for themselves as a firm foundation ²  for the future and so lay hold of ³  what is truly life.

So it was necessary for the sketches ¹  of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, ²  but the heavenly things themselves required ³  better sacrifices than these.

if my people, who belong to me, ¹  humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, ²  and repudiate their sinful practices, ³  then I will respond ⁴  from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. ⁵ 

Indeed, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race ¹  has become intermingled with the local residents. Worse still, the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront of all of this!”

“Now the rest of the people – the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple attendants, and all those who have separated themselves from the neighboring peoples ¹  because of the law of God, along with their wives, their sons, and their daughters, all of whom are able to understand –

Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love.

Look, they are like straw, which the fire burns up; they cannot rescue themselves from the heat ¹  of the flames. There are no coals to warm them, no firelight to enjoy. ² 

The Danites worshiped ¹  the carved image. Jonathan, descendant ²  of Gershom, son of Moses, ³  and his descendants ⁴  served as priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the exile.

The Israelite army ¹  took heart ²  and once more arranged their battle lines, in the same place where they had taken their positions the day before.

The priest replied to David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread at my disposal. Only holy bread is available, and then only if your soldiers ¹  have abstained from sexual relations with women.” ² 

The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ¹  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ² 

At the same time they worshiped ¹  the Lord. They appointed some of their own people to serve as priests in the shrines on the high places. ² 

He ordered ¹  the people living in Jerusalem ²  to contribute the portion prescribed for the priests and Levites so they might be obedient ³  to the law of the Lord.

even when they made a cast image of a calf for themselves and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up from Egypt,’ or when they committed atrocious ¹  blasphemies.