Recently, however, you yourselves ¹  showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. ² 

An Ethiopian, Ebed Melech, ¹  a court official in the royal palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put ²  in the cistern. While the king was holding court ³  at the Benjamin Gate,

On the tenth ¹  day of the fifth month, ²  in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard ³  who served ⁴  the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.

“They even sent for men from far away; when the messenger arrived, those men set out. ¹  For them you bathed, ²  painted your eyes, and decorated yourself with jewelry.

So the king gave the order, ¹  and Daniel was brought and thrown into a den ²  of lions. The king consoled ³  Daniel by saying, “Your God whom you continually serve will rescue you!”

Hearing this, ¹  the men became even more afraid ²  and said to him, “What have you done?” (The men said this because they knew that he was trying to escape ³  from the Lord, ⁴  because he had previously told them. ⁵ )

You march out to deliver your people, to deliver your special servant. ¹  You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ²  laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ³  Selah.

May the Lord cut off from the community ¹  of Jacob every last person who does this, ²  as well as the person who presents improper offerings to the Lord who rules over all!

“They will belong to me,” says the Lord who rules over all, “in the day when I prepare my own special property. ¹  I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate ¹  the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise ²  the other. You cannot serve God and money. ³ 

The ¹  one who had received the five talents came and brought five more, saying, ‘Sir, ²  you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’

Blessed are those slaves ¹  whom their master finds alert ²  when he returns! I tell you the truth, ³  he will dress himself to serve, ⁴  have them take their place at the table, ⁵  and will come ⁶  and wait on them! ⁷ 

but he answered ¹  his father, ‘Look! These many years I have worked like a slave ²  for you, and I never disobeyed your commands. Yet ³  you never gave me even a goat ⁴  so that I could celebrate with my friends!

Then ¹  the manager said to himself, ‘What should I do, since my master is taking my position ²  away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig, ³  and I’m too ashamed ⁴  to beg.

The ¹  master commended the dishonest ²  manager because he acted shrewdly. ³  For the people ⁴  of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries ⁵  than the people ⁶  of light.

But Simon Peter was left standing outside by the door. So the other disciple who was acquainted with the high priest came out and spoke to the slave girl who watched the door, ¹  and brought Peter inside.

So ¹  he got up ²  and went. There ³  he met ⁴  an Ethiopian eunuch, ⁵  a court official of Candace, ⁶  queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He ⁷  had come to Jerusalem to worship, ⁸ 

For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel ¹  of his Son, is my witness that ²  I continually remember you

But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.

Thanks be ¹  to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, ²  I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but ³  with my flesh I serve ⁴  the law of sin.