I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ¹  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ²  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. ¹  So how can you possibly avoid being punished? ²  You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the Lord who rules over all, ³  affirm it!’ ⁴ 

So if perfection had in fact been possible through the Levitical priesthood – for on that basis ¹  the people received the law – what further need would there have been for another priest to arise, said to be in the order of Melchizedek and not in Aaron’s order?

And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language ¹  they have begun to do this, then ²  nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. ³ 

The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ¹  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ²  have a child when I am old?’

While Laban had gone to shear his sheep, ¹  Rachel stole the household idols ²  that belonged to her father.

Even though she continued to speak ¹  to Joseph day after day, he did not respond ²  to her invitation to have sex with her. ³ 

Take double the money with you; ¹  you must take back ²  the money that was returned in the mouths of your sacks – perhaps it was an oversight.

The Egyptians were urging ¹  the people on, in order to send them out of the land quickly, ²  for they were saying, “We are all dead!”

How can one man chase a thousand of them, ¹  and two pursue ten thousand; unless their Rock had delivered them up, ²  and the Lord had handed them over?

Her rival wife used to upset her and make her worry, ¹  for the Lord had not enabled her to have children.

Solomon left all these items unweighed; there were so many of them they did not weigh the bronze. ¹ 

“God does not really live on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

“God does not really live with humankind on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

They were unable to observe it at the regular ¹  time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem.

The Lord God of their ancestors ¹  continually warned them through his messengers, ²  for he felt compassion for his people and his dwelling place.

For how can I watch the calamity that will befall my people, and how can I watch the destruction of my relatives?” ¹ 

One person is generous ¹  and yet grows more wealthy, ²  but another withholds more than he should ³  and comes to poverty. ⁴ 

The Teacher says: I discovered this while trying to discover the scheme of things, item by item.

Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ¹  Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ²  Even if mothers ³  were to forget, I could never forget you! ⁴