But just as at that time the one born by natural descent ¹  persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, ²  so it is now.

So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

Endure your suffering ¹  as discipline; ²  God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?

Where do the conflicts and where ¹  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ²  from your passions that battle inside you? ³ 

Dear friends, do not be astonished ¹  that a trial by fire is occurring among you, ²  as though something strange were happening to you.

Does it seem too small a thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel to bring you near to himself, to perform the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the community to minister to them?

They said to him, “Shut up! Put your hand over your mouth and come with us! You can be our adviser ¹  and priest. Wouldn’t it be better to be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for just one man’s family?” ² 

This failure on your part isn’t good! ¹  As surely as the Lord lives, you people who have not protected your lord, the Lord’s chosen one, are as good as dead! ²  Now look where the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head are!”

As certainly as the Lord your God lives, my master has sent to every nation and kingdom in an effort to find you. When they say, ‘He’s not here,’ he makes them ¹  swear an oath that they could not find you.

Perhaps you will tell me, ‘We are trusting in the Lord our God.’ But Hezekiah is the one who eliminated his high places and altars and then told the people of Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You must worship at this altar in Jerusalem.’

“For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put ¹  my laws in their minds ²  and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. ³ 

Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself now from me. If you go ¹  to the left, then I’ll go to the right, but if you go to the right, then I’ll go to the left.”

Later the older daughter said ¹  to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby ²  to have sexual relations with us, ³  according to the way of all the world.

Then Jacob ¹  said, “Since it is still the middle of the day, ²  it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.” ³ 

Indeed, ¹  you had little before I arrived, ²  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ³  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ⁴  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ⁵ 

Then they brought the special tunic to their father ¹  and said, “We found this. Determine now whether it is your son’s tunic or not.”

When he sees the boy is not with us, ¹  he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave.

The Lord said to him, “Who gave ¹  a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ² 

No straw is given to your servants, but we are told, ¹  ‘Make bricks!’ Your servants are even ²  being beaten, but the fault ³  is with your people.”

Isn’t this what we told you ¹  in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, ²  because it is better for us to serve ³  the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” ⁴