The Lord has removed the judgment against you; ¹  he has turned back your enemy. Israel’s king, the Lord, is in your midst! You no longer need to fear disaster.

“The Lord who rules over all also says, ‘Gather strength, you who are listening to these words today from the mouths of the prophets who were there at the founding of the house of the Lord who rules over all, ¹  so that the temple might be built.

“I (says the Lord) will strengthen the kingdom ¹  of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph ²  and will bring them back ³  because of my compassion for them. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and therefore I will hear them.

And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ¹  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped ¹  by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord who rules over all? ² 

Thus whenever you do charitable giving, ¹  do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues ²  and on streets so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, ³  they have their reward.

“Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in synagogues ¹  and on street corners so that people can see them. Truly I say to you, they have their reward.

“When ¹  you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive ²  so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, ³  they have their reward.

“I tell you the truth, ¹  among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least ²  in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.

and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing infants you have prepared praise for yourself’?” ¹ 

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ¹  This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ² 

so that on you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, ¹  whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

When he learned of this, ¹  Jesus said to them, “Why are you arguing ²  about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Have your hearts been hardened?

But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹ 

Sell your possessions ¹  and give to the poor. ²  Provide yourselves purses that do not wear out – a treasure in heaven ³  that never decreases, ⁴  where no thief approaches and no moth ⁵  destroys.

Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down ¹  first and determine whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose ²  the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, ¹  “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, ²  I saw you.”

For this reason the Jewish leaders ¹  were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, ¹  because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides ²  with you and will be ³  in you.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, ¹  so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world ² .