“‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take ¹  some of the ashes of the heifer ²  burnt for purification from sin and pour ³  fresh running ⁴  water over them in a vessel.

Now look, you are standing in your fathers’ place, a brood of sinners, to increase still further the fierce wrath of the Lord against the Israelites.

But now, why should we die, because this intense fire will consume us! If we keep hearing the voice of the Lord our God we will die!

You must do what you are instructed, and the verdict they pronounce to you, without fail. Do not deviate right or left from what they tell you.

Absalom would then say, “If only they would make me ¹  a judge in the land! Then everyone who had a judicial complaint ²  could come to me and I would make sure he receives a just settlement.”

Then I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, and I presented to them the letters from the king. The king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

For this reason every one of your faithful followers ¹  should pray to you while there is a window of opportunity. ²  Certainly ³  when the surging water ⁴  rises, it will not reach them. ⁵ 

A person with great anger bears the penalty, ¹  but if you deliver him from it once, you will have to do it again. ² 

The Beloved to Her Lover: ¹  Oh, how I wish you ²  would kiss me passionately! ³  For your lovemaking ⁴  is more delightful ⁵  than wine. ⁶ 

Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people – an absolutely extraordinary deed. ¹  Wise men will have nothing to say, the sages will have no explanations.” ² 

Out of those places you will hear songs of thanksgiving ¹  and the sounds of laughter and merriment. I will increase their number and they will not dwindle away. ²  I will bring them honor and they will no longer be despised.

“You who force your neighbor to drink wine ¹  are as good as dead ²  – you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ³  so you can look at their genitals. ⁴ 

I am about to discipline your children ¹  and will spread offal ²  on your faces, ³  the very offal produced at your festivals, and you will be carried away along with it.

In ¹  everything, treat others as you would want them ²  to treat you, ³  for this fulfills ⁴  the law and the prophets.

But because of your stubbornness ¹  and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed! ² 

If after all there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords),

Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, ¹  for we are members of one another.

We proclaim him by instructing ¹  and teaching ²  all people ³  with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature ⁴  in Christ.

I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. ¹  Remember my chains. ²  Grace be with you. ³ 

In addition, the officers are to say to the troops, “Who among you is afraid and fainthearted? He may go home so that he will not make his fellow soldier’s ¹  heart as fearful ²  as his own.”