Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will subject you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

Therefore the Lord says this: “Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! ¹  It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. ²  You will no longer ³  walk proudly, for it will be a time of catastrophe.

The Lord has issued a decree against you: ¹  “Your dynasty will come to an end. ²  I will destroy the idols and images in the temples of your gods. I will desecrate ³  your grave – because you are accursed!” ⁴ 

Now in those ¹  days, when the disciples were growing in number, ²  a complaint arose on the part of the Greek-speaking Jews ³  against the native Hebraic Jews, ⁴  because their widows ⁵  were being overlooked ⁶  in the daily distribution of food. ⁷ 

But Barnabas took ¹  Saul, ²  brought ³  him to the apostles, and related to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that ⁴  the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly ⁵  in the name of Jesus.

But the Jews became jealous, ¹  and gathering together some worthless men from the rabble in the marketplace, ²  they formed a mob ³  and set the city in an uproar. ⁴  They attacked Jason’s house, ⁵  trying to find Paul and Silas ⁶  to bring them out to the assembly. ⁷ 

Then when Paul noticed ¹  that part of them were Sadducees ²  and the others Pharisees, ³  he shouted out in the council, ⁴  “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection ⁵  of the dead!”

I have experienced ¹  help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except ²  what the prophets and Moses said ³  was going to happen:

Indeed, he who ¹  did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

But the man who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin. ¹ 

For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to die, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people.

now I ask that when I am present I may not have to be bold with the confidence that (I expect) I will dare to use against some who consider us to be behaving ¹  according to human standards. ² 

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

“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 

This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this ¹  that you are doing for the people? ²  Why are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”

It then went up the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusites on the south (that is, Jerusalem), ¹  going up to the top of the hill opposite the Valley of Ben Hinnom to the west, which is at the end of the Valley of the Rephaites to the north.

She summoned ¹  Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali. She said to him, “Is it not true that the Lord God of Israel is commanding you? Go, march to Mount Tabor! Take with you ten thousand men from Naphtali and Zebulun!

He risked his life ¹  when he struck down the Philistine and the Lord gave all Israel a great victory. When you saw it, you were happy. So why would you sin against innocent blood by putting David to death for no reason?”

Now be willing to bless your servant’s dynasty ¹  so that it may stand permanently before you, for you, O sovereign Lord, have spoken. By your blessing may your servant’s dynasty be blessed on into the future!” ²