It grew so big it reached the army ¹  of heaven, and it brought about the fall of some of the army and some of the stars ²  to the ground, where it trampled them.

His forces ¹  will rise up and profane the fortified sanctuary, ²  stopping the daily sacrifice. In its place they will set up ³  the abomination that causes desolation.

But reports will trouble him from the east and north, and he will set out in a tremendous rage to destroy and wipe out many.

Beat your plowshares ¹  into swords, and your pruning hooks ²  into spears! ³  Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’ ⁴ 

“For look, I am giving a command and I will shake the family of Israel together with all the nations. It will resemble a sieve being shaken, when not even a pebble falls to the ground. ¹ 

You ¹  devour my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot ²  – like meat in a kettle.

You will once again ¹  have mercy on us; you will conquer ²  our evil deeds; you will hurl our ³  sins into the depths of the sea. ⁴ 

The Babylonian tyrant ¹  pulls them all up with a fishhook; he hauls them in with his throw net. ²  When he catches ³  them in his dragnet, he is very happy. ⁴ 

Because of his success ¹  he offers sacrifices to his throw net and burns incense to his dragnet; ²  for because of them he has plenty of food, ³  and more than enough to eat. ⁴ 

I will overthrow royal thrones and shatter the might of earthly kingdoms. ¹  I will overthrow chariots and those who ride them, and horses and their riders will fall as people kill one another. ² 

And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you throw yourself to the ground and worship ¹  me.”

“Blessed are you when people ¹  insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely ²  on account of me.

Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ¹  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ²  is with them, can they? But the days ³  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ⁴  and then they will fast.

When it was full, they pulled it ashore, sat down, and put the good fish into containers and threw the bad away.

But Jesus called them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them.

“Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations ¹  because of my name. ² 

Jesus ¹  said to them, “The wedding guests ²  cannot fast while the bridegroom ³  is with them, can they? ⁴  As long as they have the bridegroom with them they do not fast.

It shrieked, threw him into terrible convulsions, and came out. The boy ¹  looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He is dead!”

Then, ¹  after he went into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we cast it out?”

Many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread branches they had cut in the fields.