For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers would have been purified once for all and so have ¹  no further consciousness of sin?

The godly bask in the light; the morally upright experience joy. ¹ 

Bunch yourselves together like straw, ¹  you undesirable ²  nation,

But then the Lord awoke from his sleep; ¹  he was like a warrior in a drunken rage. ² 

because what can be known about God is plain to them, ¹  because God has made it plain to them.

For in fact you shared the sufferings of those in prison, ¹  and you accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you certainly ²  had a better and lasting possession.

And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here ¹  in reverence.

No one thinks to himself, nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves: ‘I burned half of it in the fire – yes, I baked bread over the coals; I roasted meat and ate it. With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol? Should I bow down to dry wood?’ ¹ 

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ²  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ³ 

But this knowledge is not shared by all. And some, by being accustomed to idols in former times, eat this food as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, because it is weak, is defiled.