I tell you, even though the man inside ¹  will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of the first man’s ²  sheer persistence ³  he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

If you then, although you are ¹  evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit ²  to those who ask him!”

Then ¹  he said to them, “Watch out and guard yourself from ²  all types of greed, ³  because one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

then the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, ¹  and assign him a place with the unfaithful. ² 

But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, ¹  so that you may come to know ²  and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”

The word of God continued to spread, ¹  the number of disciples in Jerusalem ²  increased greatly, and a large group ³  of priests became obedient to the faith.

The Spirit told me to accompany them without hesitation. These six brothers ¹  also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.

I have experienced ¹  help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except ²  what the prophets and Moses said ³  was going to happen:

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.

For they were pleased to do this, and indeed they are indebted to the Jerusalem saints. ¹  For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are obligated also to minister to them in material things.

Already you are satisfied! Already you are rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you had become kings so that we could reign with you!

To the weak I became weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some.

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, ¹  but we are speaking in Christ before ²  God as persons of sincerity, ³  as persons sent from God.

I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison ¹  to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

My confident hope ¹  is that I will in no way be ashamed ²  but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die. ³ 

You ¹  do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? ²  For you are a puff of smoke ³  that appears for a short time and then vanishes.

Therefore, remember what you received and heard, ¹  and obey it, ²  and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will never ³  know at what hour I will come against ⁴  you.

Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and take a gift down to the man – a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses, the livestock of their flocks and herds, and their donkeys. ¹  He got them through that year by giving them food in exchange for livestock.

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died ¹  by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by ²  the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, ³  for you have brought us out into this desert to kill ⁴  this whole assembly with hunger!”