But some from the religious party of the Pharisees ¹  who had believed stood up and said, “It is necessary ²  to circumcise the Gentiles ³  and to order them to observe ⁴  the law of Moses.”

For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, because I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

To the rest I say – I, not the Lord ¹  – if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.

Nevertheless, ¹  as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each person, so must he live. I give this sort of direction in all the churches.

Let the word of Christ ¹  dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace ²  in your hearts to God.

When they return to you with all their heart and being ¹  in the land where they are held prisoner, ²  and direct their prayers to you toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, ³ 

“Foreigners, who do not belong to your people Israel, will come from a distant land because of your great reputation ¹  and your ability to accomplish mighty deeds; ²  they will come and direct their prayers toward this temple.

When they return to you with all their heart and being ¹  in the land where they are held prisoner and direct their prayers toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, ² 

The men worked faithfully. Their supervisors were Jahath and Obadiah (Levites descended from Merari), as well as Zechariah and Meshullam (descendants of Kohath). The Levites, all of whom were skilled musicians,

So Jeshua appointed both his sons and his relatives, ¹  Kadmiel and his sons (the sons of Yehudah ² ), to take charge of the workers in the temple of God, along with the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their relatives ³  the Levites.

Indeed, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race ¹  has become intermingled with the local residents. Worse still, the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront of all of this!”

The Lord God of Israel told Jeremiah ¹  to go and give King Zedekiah of Judah a message. He told Jeremiah ²  to tell him, “The Lord says, ‘I am going to ³  hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it down.

The ships of Kittim ¹  will come against him, leaving him disheartened. ²  He will turn back and direct his indignation against the holy covenant. He will return and honor ³  those who forsake the holy covenant.

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  when you were young, you tied your clothes around you ²  and went wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will tie you up ³  and bring you where you do not want to go.”

In the second year after they had come to the temple of God in Jerusalem, ¹  in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak initiated the work, ²  along with the rest of their associates, ³  the priests and the Levites, and all those who were coming to Jerusalem from the exile. They appointed ⁴  the Levites who were at least twenty years old ⁵  to take charge of the work on the Lord’s temple.