The Lord looks down from heaven ¹  at the human race, ²  to see if there is anyone who is wise ³  and seeks God. ⁴ 

My heart tells me to pray to you, ¹  and I do pray to you, O Lord. ² 

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.

and those who turn their backs on ¹  the Lord and do not want the Lord’s help or guidance.” ² 

Because of the impending crisis I think it best for you to remain as you are.

At the present time, your abundance will meet their need, ¹  so that one day their abundance may also meet your need, and thus there may be equality,

However, ¹  without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your good deed would not be out of compulsion, but from your own willingness.

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So this one too had to have something to offer.

But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. ¹ 

I also discovered that the grain offerings for the Levites had not been provided, and that as a result the Levites and the singers who performed this work had all gone off to their fields.

Let none who rely on you be disgraced because of me, O sovereign Lord and king! ¹  Let none who seek you be ashamed because of me, O God of Israel!

“Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, ¹  who seek the Lord! Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry ²  from which you were dug! ³ 

Sharon ¹  will become a pasture for sheep, and the Valley of Achor ²  a place where cattle graze; ³  they will belong to my people, who seek me. ⁴ 

“When that time comes,” says the Lord, ¹  “the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the Lord their God. ² 

Seek the Lord’s favor, ¹  all you humble people ²  of the land who have obeyed his commands! ³  Strive to do what is right! ⁴  Strive to be humble! ⁵  Maybe you will be protected ⁶  on the day of the Lord’s angry judgment.

Then ¹  Jesus ²  began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer ³  many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, ⁴  and be killed, and after three days rise again.

I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison ¹  to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

He has no need to do every day what those priests do, to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he did this in offering himself once for all.

Dear friends, although I have been eager to write to you ¹  about our common salvation, I now feel compelled ²  instead to write to encourage ³  you to contend earnestly ⁴  for the faith ⁵  that was once for all ⁶  entrusted to the saints. ⁷ 

Now seek the Lord your God wholeheartedly and with your entire being! ¹  Get up and build the sanctuary of the Lord God! Then you can bring ²  the ark of the Lord’s covenant and the holy items dedicated to God’s service ³  into the temple that is built to honor the Lord.” ⁴