They sent this letter with them: ¹  From the apostles ²  and elders, your brothers, ³  to the Gentile brothers and sisters ⁴  in Antioch, ⁵  Syria, ⁶  and Cilicia, greetings!

After ¹  they had spent some time there, ²  they were sent off in peace by the brothers to those who had sent them. ³ 

After five days the high priest Ananias ¹  came down with some elders and an attorney ²  named ³  Tertullus, and they ⁴  brought formal charges ⁵  against Paul to the governor.

And so ¹  all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

Therefore after I have completed this and have safely delivered this bounty to them, ¹  I will set out for Spain by way of you,

because the service of this ministry is not only providing for ¹  the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.

But just as at that time the one born by natural descent ¹  persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, ²  so it is now.

Their ¹  corpses will lie in the street ²  of the great city that is symbolically ³  called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified.

He has also conferred his favor on me before the king, his advisers, and all the influential leaders of the king. I gained strength as the hand of the Lord my God was on me, and I gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me.

At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord who commands armies, by a people that are tall and smooth-skinned, a people that are feared far and wide, a nation strong and victorious, whose land rivers divide. ¹  The tribute ²  will be brought to the place where the Lord who commands armies has chosen to reside, on Mount Zion. ³ 

Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. ¹ 

How dare you claim the Lord’s authority to prophesy such things! How dare you claim his authority to prophesy that this temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will become an uninhabited ruin!” ¹  Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah.

All the nations will hear about all the good things which I will do to them. This city will bring me fame, honor, and praise before them for the joy that I bring it. The nations will tremble in awe at all the peace and prosperity that I will provide for it.’ ¹ 

Then Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official, ¹  and all the other officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters ²  in the Middle Gate. ³ 

א (Alef) ^{1  2} Alas! ³  The city once full of people ⁴  now sits all alone! ⁵  The prominent ⁶  lady among the nations has become a widow! ⁷  The princess ⁸  who once ruled the provinces ⁹  has become a forced laborer!

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city ¹  was struck down, on this very day, ²  the hand ³  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me there. ⁴ 

“I am a Jew, ¹  born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up ²  in this city, educated with strictness ³  under ⁴  Gamaliel ⁵  according to the law of our ancestors, ⁶  and was ⁷  zealous ⁸  for God just as all of you are today.

But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas ¹  in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force ²  the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

All Jerusalem was terrified ¹  because Gibeon was a large city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai and all its men were warriors.

It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people ¹  of Israel longed for ²  the Lord.