“‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing ¹  that you had reached the age for love. ²  I spread my cloak ³  over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

You saw that a stone was cut from a mountain, but not by human hands; it smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold into pieces. The great God has made known to the king what will occur in the future. ¹  The dream is certain, and its interpretation is reliable.”

“After these things, as I was watching in the night visions ¹  a fourth beast appeared – one dreadful, terrible, and very strong. ²  It had two large rows ³  of iron teeth. It devoured and crushed, and anything that was left it trampled with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns.

When Herod ¹  saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men ²  to kill all the children in Bethlehem ³  and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.

The next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the lake ¹  realized that only one small boat ²  had been there, and that Jesus had not boarded ³  it with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.

In Noah’s six hundred and first year, ¹  in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that ²  the surface of the ground was dry.

When I looked, you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God and had cast for yourselves a metal calf; ¹  you had quickly turned aside from the way he ²  had commanded you!

I did not believe these things until I came and saw them with my own eyes. Indeed, I didn’t hear even half the story! ¹  Your wisdom and wealth ²  surpass what was reported to me.

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.

Then she saw ¹  the king standing by the pillar, according to custom. The officers stood beside the king with their trumpets and all the people of the land were celebrating and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and screamed, “Treason, treason!” ² 

Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders ¹  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ²  – were weeping loudly, ³  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout.

These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, ¹  but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners ²  on the earth.

When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king, “We have no portion in David – no share in the son of Jesse! ¹  Return to your homes, O Israel! ²  Now, look after your own dynasty, O David!” ³  So all Israel returned to their homes. ⁴ 

As for the king seeing a holy sentinel coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its taproot in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, surrounded by the grass of the field. Let it become damp with the dew of the sky, and let it live with the wild animals, until seven periods of time go by for him’ –

In the middle of the night he was startled ¹  and turned over. ²  Now ³  he saw a woman ⁴  lying beside him! ⁵ 

If he is uprooted ¹  from his place, then that place ²  will disown him, saying, ³  ‘I have never seen you!’

If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without a coat,

When you see a thief, you join him; ¹  you associate with men who are unfaithful to their wives. ² 

I saw ¹  that thorns had grown up all over it, the ground ²  was covered with weeds, and its stone wall was broken down.

This is what I also observed about wisdom on earth, ¹  and it is a great burden ²  to me: