Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. They cannot talk. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them because they cannot hurt you. And they do not have any power to help you.” ¹ 

Joy and gladness will disappear from the fruitful land of Moab. ¹  I will stop the flow of wine from the winepresses. No one will stomp on the grapes there and shout for joy. ²  The shouts there will be shouts of soldiers, not the shouts of those making wine. ³ 

ז (Zayin) The Lord ¹  rejected ²  his altar and abhorred his temple. ³  He handed over to the enemy ⁴  her palace walls; the enemy ⁵  shouted ⁶  in the Lord’s temple as if it were a feast day. ⁷ 

Her princes ¹  within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows ²  within it.

Now the hand of the Lord had been on me ¹  the evening before the refugee reached me, but the Lord ²  opened my mouth by the time the refugee arrived ³  in the morning; he opened my mouth and I was no longer unable to speak. ⁴ 

Due to the noise ¹  caused by the king and his nobles, the queen mother ²  then entered the banquet room. She ³  said, “O king, live forever! Don’t be alarmed! Don’t be shaken!

“Then ¹  a second beast appeared, like a bear. It was raised up on one side, and there were three ribs ²  in its mouth between its teeth. ³  It was told, ⁴  ‘Get up and devour much flesh!’

(But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight ¹  into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!

He builds the upper rooms of his palace ¹  in heaven and sets its foundation supports ²  on the earth. ³  He summons the water of the sea and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name.

What good ¹  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ²  What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ³  Why would its creator place his trust in it ⁴  and make ⁵  such mute, worthless things?

“Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, ‘The Lord who rules over all says, “Turn now from your evil wickedness,”’ but they would by no means obey me,” says the Lord.

Then ¹  large crowds came to him bringing with them the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. They ²  laid them at his feet, and he healed them.

As a result, the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing, and they praised the God of Israel.

Now when Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked ¹  the unclean spirit, ²  saying to it, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”

And now, ¹  because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, ²  you will be silent, unable to speak, ³  until the day these things take place.”

But ¹  other seed fell on good soil and grew, ²  and it produced a hundred times as much grain.” ³  As he said this, ⁴  he called out, “The one who has ears to hear had better listen!” ⁵ 

Then the crowd responded, ¹  “We have heard from the law that the Christ ²  will remain forever. ³  How ⁴  can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?”

From this point on, Pilate tried ¹  to release him. But the Jewish leaders ²  shouted out, ³  “If you release this man, ⁴  you are no friend of Caesar! ⁵  Everyone who claims to be a king ⁶  opposes Caesar!”

And that is what I did in Jerusalem: Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received ¹  from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote ²  against them when they were sentenced to death. ³ 

Even though they have the appearance of wisdom ¹  with their self-imposed worship and false humility ²  achieved by an ³  unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. ⁴