Or ‘Deliver me ¹  from the enemy’s power, ²  and from the hand of tyrants ³  ransom ⁴  me’?

Why ¹  do I put myself in peril, ²  and take my life in my hands?

I made it beautiful with its many branches; all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it.

Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten. ¹ 

But as a matter of fact, God has placed each of the members in the body just as he decided.

When he turned around and saw them, he called God’s judgment down on them. ¹  Two female bears came out of the woods and ripped forty-two of the boys to pieces.

When the argument became ¹  so great the commanding officer ²  feared that they would tear Paul to pieces, ³  he ordered the detachment ⁴  to go down, take him away from them by force, ⁵  and bring him into the barracks. ⁶ 

For if I have boasted to him about anything concerning you, I have not been embarrassed by you, ¹  but just as everything we said to you was true, ²  so our boasting to Titus about you ³  has proved true as well.

Certainly none who rely on you will be humiliated. Those who deal in treachery will be thwarted ¹  and humiliated.

when those who keep watch over the house ¹  begin to tremble, ²  and the virile men begin to stoop over, ³  and the grinders ⁴  begin to cease because they grow few, and those who look through the windows grow dim, ⁵ 

Consider Assyria, ¹  a cedar in Lebanon, ²  with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade, and extremely tall; its top reached into the clouds.

Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches grew long, because of the plentiful water in its shoots. ¹ 

For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ¹ 

For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body – though many – are one body, so too is Christ.

I am grateful to the one who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful in putting me into ministry,

There will be some left behind, like when an olive tree is beaten – two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches,” says the Lord God of Israel.

When its branches get brittle, ¹  they break; women come and use them for kindling. ²  For these people lack understanding, ³  therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them; the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

You will probably ask yourself, ¹  ‘Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ ²  It is because you have sinned so much. ³ 

Here is what the Lord says concerning the false prophets: ²  My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I tremble all over. ³  I am like a drunk person, like a person who has had too much wine, ⁴  because of the way the Lord and his holy word are being mistreated. ⁵ 

A fire has gone out from its branch; it has consumed its shoot and its fruit. ¹  No strong branch was left in it, nor a scepter to rule.’ This is a lament song, and has become a lament song.”