But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ¹ 

so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

(for if you live according to the flesh, you will ¹  die), ²  but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which ¹  the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

The king’s scribes were quickly ¹  summoned – in the third month (that is, the month of Sivan), on the twenty-third day. ²  They wrote out ³  everything that Mordecai instructed to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the officials of the provinces all the way from India to Ethiopia ⁴  – a hundred and twenty-seven provinces in all – to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, and to the Jews according to their own script and their own language.

Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have the honor over me ¹  – when shall I pray for you, your servants, and your people, for the frogs to be removed ²  from you and your houses, so that ³  they will be left ⁴  only in the Nile?”

When such a person ¹  hears the words of this oath he secretly ²  blesses himself ³  and says, “I will have peace though I continue to walk with a stubborn spirit.” ⁴  This will destroy ⁵  the watered ground with the parched. ⁶ 

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ¹ 

These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. ¹  They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance ²  to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So ³  they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing.

And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. ¹ 

They continually say ¹  to those who reject what the Lord has said, ²  ‘Things will go well for you!’ ³  They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’

among whom ¹  all of us ²  also ³  formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath ⁴  even as the rest… ⁵ 

So the royal scribes ¹  were summoned in the first month, on the thirteenth day of the month. Everything Haman commanded was written to the king’s satraps ²  and governors who were in every province and to the officials of every people, province by province according to its script and people by people according to its language. In the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s signet ring.