All the people, ¹  from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called ‘Great.’” ² 

Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of Israel’s tribes, and is not my family clan the smallest of all the tribes of Benjamin? Why do you speak to me in this way?”

“I tell you the truth, ¹  among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least ²  in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.

And the people stayed up ¹  all that day, all that night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail. The one who gathered the least gathered ten homers, ²  and they spread them out ³  for themselves all around the camp.

But Rebekah’s ¹  brother and her mother replied, “Let the girl stay with us a few more days, perhaps ten. Then she can go.”

The least of you will multiply into ¹  a thousand; the smallest of you will become a large nation. When the right time comes, I the Lord will quickly do this!” ² 

But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born ¹  will be disgraced. Indeed, ²  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.

If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the confirming sign ¹  of my apostleship in the Lord.

“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. ¹  For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” ²  says the Lord. “For ³  I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

So if ¹  you cannot do such a very little thing as this, why do you worry about ²  the rest?

I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go ¹  and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle ²  or perish from starvation. People of every class ³  will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse. ⁴ 

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

“The one who is faithful in a very little ¹  is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, ¹  believe because of the miraculous deeds ²  themselves.

I am not worthy of all the faithful love ¹  you have shown ²  your servant. With only my walking stick ³  I crossed the Jordan, ⁴  but now I have become two camps.

Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all ¹  nor bless them at all!” ² 

Then all the people, from the youngest to the oldest, as well as the army officers, left for ¹  Egypt, because they were afraid of what the Babylonians might do.

You ¹  go get straw for yourselves wherever you can ²  find it, because there will be no reduction at all in your workload.’”

He left those nations simply because he wanted to teach the subsequent generations of Israelites, who had not experienced the earlier battles, how to conduct holy war. ¹