When Jesus noticed this, ¹  he said, “How hard ²  it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ³ 

The crowds were paying attention with one mind to what Philip said, ¹  as they heard and saw the miraculous signs ²  he was performing.

They know, ¹  because they have known ²  me from time past, ³  if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party ⁴  of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. ⁵ 

not like those who do their work only when someone is watching ¹  – as people-pleasers – but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. ² 

All along the way I, the Lord your God, ¹  have blessed your every effort. ²  I have ³  been attentive to ⁴  your travels through this great wasteland. These forty years I have ⁵  been with you; you have lacked for nothing.’”

I ¹  hear many whispering words of intrigue against me. Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! ²  They are saying, “Come on, let’s publicly denounce him!” ³  All my so-called friends ⁴  are just watching for something that would lead to my downfall. ⁵  They say, “Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up, so we can prevail over ⁶  him and get our revenge on him.

He turned away from them and wept. When he turned around and spoke to them again, ¹  he had Simeon taken ²  from them and tied up ³  before their eyes.

¹ In those days, ²  when ³  Moses had grown up, he went out to his people ⁴  and observed ⁵  their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking ⁶  a Hebrew man, one of his own people. ⁷ 

So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh, Moses threw it into the air, and it caused festering boils to break out on both people and animals.

And when Moses went out ¹  to the tent, all the people would get up ²  and stand at the entrance to their tents ³  and watch ⁴  Moses until he entered the tent. ⁵ 

I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors ¹  whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the Lord.’”

The Lord ¹  found him ²  in a desolate land, in an empty wasteland where animals howl. ³  He continually guarded him ⁴  and taught him; ⁵  he continually protected him ⁶  like the pupil ⁷  of his eye.

He said to his father and mother, “I have not seen him,” ¹  and he did not acknowledge his own brothers or know his own children, for they kept your word, and guarded your covenant.

Through the window she looked; Sisera’s mother cried out through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot so slow to return? Why are the hoofbeats of his chariot-horses ¹  delayed?’

As the flame went up from the altar toward the sky, the Lord’s messenger went up in it ¹  while Manoah and his wife watched. They fell facedown ²  to the ground.

They were in charge of the meeting tent and the holy place, and helped their relatives, the descendants of Aaron, in the service of the Lord’s temple. ¹ 

While the battle raged throughout the day, the king stood propped up in his chariot opposite the Syrians. He died in the evening as the sun was setting.

For forty years I was continually disgusted ¹  with that generation, and I said, ‘These people desire to go astray; ²  they do not obey my commands.’ 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 

Look what’s coming! A charioteer, a team of horses.” ¹  When questioned, he replies, ²  “Babylon has fallen, fallen! All the idols of her gods lie shattered on the ground!”