Kings will be your children’s ¹  guardians; their princesses will nurse your children. ²  With their faces to the ground they will bow down to you and they will lick the dirt on ³  your feet. Then you will recognize that I am the Lord; those who wait patiently for me are not put to shame.

When words abound, transgression is inevitable, ¹  but the one who restrains ²  his words ³  is wise.

The one who forgives ¹  an offense seeks ²  love, but whoever repeats a matter separates close friends. ³ 

For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, ¹  how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness ²  excel ³  in glory!

But reject foolish and ignorant ¹  controversies, because you know they breed infighting. ² 

So the Lord ¹  will hand the people of Israel ²  over to their enemies ³  until the time when the woman in labor ⁴  gives birth. ⁵  Then the rest of the king’s ⁶  countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel. ⁷ 

nor to occupy themselves with myths and interminable genealogies. ¹  Such things promote useless speculations rather than God’s redemptive plan ²  that operates by faith.

For there will be a time when people ¹  will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, ²  they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. ³ 

Did I conceive this entire people? ¹  Did I give birth to ²  them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father ³  bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?

So I gave orders, ¹  and it was determined ²  that this city from long ago has been engaging in insurrection against kings. It has continually engaged in ³  rebellion and revolt.

Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch: ¹  Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, ²  Lucius the Cyrenian, ³  Manaen (a close friend of Herod ⁴  the tetrarch ⁵  from childhood ⁶ ) and Saul.