(as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”). ¹  He is our father ²  in the presence of God whom he believed – the God who ³  makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do. ⁴ 

The ¹  remnant of Benjamin must be preserved. An entire Israelite tribe should not be wiped out. ² 

He hid out with his nurse in the Lord’s temple ¹  for six years, while Athaliah was ruling over the land.

You severely discipline people for their sins; ¹  like a moth you slowly devour their strength. ²  Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation! ¹  Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”

Even before the mountains came into existence, ¹  or you brought the world into being, ²  you were the eternal God. ³ 

From this day forward I am he; no one can deliver from my power; ¹  I will act, and who can prevent it?”

This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is greater than I am, ¹  because he existed before me.’

For in him we live and move about ¹  and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ ² 

for before the law was given, ¹  sin was in the world, but there is no accounting for sin ²  when there is no law.

Instead we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our glory.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them. ¹ 

By faith we understand that the worlds ¹  were set in order at God’s command, ²  so that the visible has its origin in the invisible. ³ 

Then ¹  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire.

“At that time Michael, the great prince who watches over your people, ¹  will arise. ²  There will be a time of distress unlike any other from the nation’s beginning ³  up to that time. But at that time your own people, all those whose names are ⁴  found written in the book, will escape.

He will hand over their kings to you and you will erase their very names from memory. ¹  Nobody will be able to resist you until you destroy them.

Look, you make my days short-lived, ¹  and my life span is nothing from your perspective. ²  Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. ³ 

Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. ¹  All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence. ² 

I decided ¹  to carefully ²  and thoroughly examine ³  all that has been accomplished on earth. ⁴  I concluded: ⁵  God has given people ⁶  a burdensome task ⁷  that keeps them ⁸  occupied. ⁹