Persist ¹  in trusting ²  your amulets and your many incantations, which you have faithfully recited ³  since your youth! Maybe you will be successful ⁴  – maybe you will scare away disaster. ⁵ 

you say, ‘I have not done anything wrong, so the Lord cannot really be angry with me any more.’ But, watch out! ¹  I will bring down judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not committed any sin.’

“You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ²  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ³ 

Then you will know that I am the Lord, whose statutes you have not followed and whose regulations you have not carried out. Instead you have behaved according to the regulations of the nations around you!’”

You have not gone up in the breaks in the wall, nor repaired a wall for the house of Israel that it would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord.

From the days of your ancestors you have ignored ¹  my commandments ²  and have not kept them! Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord who rules over all. “But you say, ‘How should we return?’

When ¹  Jesus heard this he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “I tell you the truth, ²  I have not found such faith in anyone in Israel!

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed ¹  at him. He turned and said to the crowd that followed him, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith!” ² 

So ¹  he said to the worker who tended the vineyard, ‘For ²  three years ³  now, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and each time I inspect it ⁴  I find none. Cut ⁵  it down! Why ⁶  should it continue to deplete ⁷  the soil?’

I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner ¹  who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people ²  who have no need to repent. ³ 

For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed.

Yet ¹  you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, ²  I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey ³  his teaching. ⁴ 

But we do not know how he is now able to see, nor do we know who caused him to see. ¹  Ask him, he is a mature adult. ²  He will speak for himself.”

He answered, ¹  “I told you already and you didn’t listen. ²  Why do you want to hear it ³  again? You people ⁴  don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”

Jesus replied, “You would have no authority ¹  over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you ²  is guilty of greater sin.” ³ 

and said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” ¹  They replied, ²  “No, we have not even ³  heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them ¹ ?

But I ask, have they ¹  not heard? ²  Yes, they have: ³  Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. ⁴ 

With regard to our brother Apollos: I strongly encouraged him to visit you with the other brothers, ¹  but it was simply not his intention to come now. ²  He will come when he has the opportunity.

I urged Titus to visit you ¹  and I sent our ²  brother along with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? ³  Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit? Did we not behave in the same way? ⁴