For my sake alone ¹  I will act, for how can I allow my name to be defiled? ²  I will not share my glory with anyone else! ³ 

Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I summoned! I am the one; I am present at the very beginning and at the very end. ¹ 

“Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ¹  I chose you. ²  Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

The people I call my own ¹  have turned on me like a lion ²  in the forest. They have roared defiantly ³  at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them. ⁴ 

Many foreign rulers ¹  will ruin the land where I planted my people. ²  They will trample all over my chosen land. ³  They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland.

People of Jerusalem, ¹  go up to Lebanon and cry out in mourning. Go to the land of Bashan and cry out loudly. Cry out in mourning from the mountains of Moab. ²  For your allies ³  have all been defeated.

To this day your people ¹  have shown no contrition! They have not revered me nor followed the laws and statutes I commanded ²  you and your ancestors.’

I also swore ¹  to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them to the land I had given them – a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

You have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have assigned foreigners ¹  to keep charge of my sanctuary for you.

Woe ¹  to those who live in ease in Zion, ²  to those who feel secure on Mount Samaria. They think of themselves as ³  the elite class of the best nation. The family ⁴  of Israel looks to them for leadership. ⁵ 

Be silent before the Lord God, ¹  for the Lord’s day of judgment ²  is almost here. ³  The Lord has prepared a sacrificial meal; ⁴  he has ritually purified ⁵  his guests.

but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give. It is for those for whom it has been prepared.” ¹ 

beginning from his baptism by John until the day he ¹  was taken up from us – one of these must become a witness of his resurrection together with us.”

On the next day we left ¹  and came to Caesarea, ²  and entered ³  the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, ⁴  and stayed with him.

From Paul, ¹  a slave ²  of Christ Jesus, ³  called to be an apostle, ⁴  set apart for the gospel of God. ⁵ 

who are Israelites. To them belong ¹  the adoption as sons, ²  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ³  and the promises.

And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children ¹  of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved,

In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.

so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But if I do it unwillingly, I am entrusted with a responsibility.