making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food ¹  to eat and clothing to wear,

The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; ¹  take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, ¹  and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; ²  you must not ³  walk in their statutes.

Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”

So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fee for divination in their hand. They came to Balaam and reported ¹  to him the words of Balak.

Then they took ¹  some of the produce of the land and carried it back down to us. They also brought a report to us, saying, “The land that the Lord our God is about to give us is good.”

So the army rushed greedily on ¹  the ²  plunder, confiscating sheep, cattle, and calves. They slaughtered them right on the ground, and the army ate them blood and all.

So Saul arose and went down to the desert of Ziph, accompanied by three thousand select men of Israel, to look for David in the desert of Ziph.

So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’

They went from Midian to Paran; they took some men from Paran and went to Egypt. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, supplied him with a house and food and even assigned him some land. ¹ 

The king of Israel said to his servants, “Surely you recognize that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us, though we are hesitant to reclaim it from the king of Syria.” ¹ 

I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly.

During all this time I was not in Jerusalem, ¹  for in the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes of Babylon, I had gone back to the king. After some time ²  I had requested leave of the king,

It shatters in pieces like a clay jar, so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ¹  Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ²  to scoop a hot coal from a fire ³  or to skim off water from a cistern.” ⁴ 

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, ¹  fourteen generations.

Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is approaching, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

He took the blind man by the hand and brought him outside of the village. Then ¹  he spit on his eyes, placed his hands on his eyes ²  and asked, “Do you see anything?”

He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? ¹  Enough of that! ²  The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.