They will flog him severely ¹  and kill him. Yet ²  on the third day he will rise again.”

What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline ¹  or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things.

Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it.

The locusts went up over all the land of Egypt and settled down in all the territory ¹  of Egypt. It was very severe; ²  there had been no locusts like them before, nor will there be such ever again. ³ 

You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. ¹ 

You will then eat your own offspring, ¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ²  by which your enemies will constrict you.

Eli ¹  said, “What message did he speak to you? Don’t conceal it from me. God will judge you severely ²  if you conceal from me anything that he said to you!”

Then all the people came and encouraged David to eat food while it was still day. But David took an oath saying, “God will punish me severely ¹  if I taste bread or anything whatsoever before the sun sets!”

Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood? ¹  God will punish me severely, ²  if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, ¹  “May the gods judge me severely ²  if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!” ³ 

Ben Hadad sent another message to him, “May the gods judge me severely ¹  if there is enough dirt left in Samaria for my soldiers to scoop up in their hands.” ² 

After about two years his intestines came out because of the disease, so that he died a very painful death. ¹  His people did not make a bonfire to honor him, as they had done for his ancestors. ² 

As for the descendants of Aaron, the priests who lived in the outskirts of all their cities, ¹  men were assigned ²  to disburse portions to every male among the priests and to every Levite listed in the genealogical records.

“For this is what the sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments – sword, famine, wild animals, and plague – to Jerusalem ¹  to kill both people and animals!

But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, ¹  when the sky ²  was shut up three and a half years, and ³  there was a great famine over all the land.

And Saul agreed completely with killing ¹  him.Now on that day a great ²  persecution began ³  against the church in Jerusalem, ⁴  and all ⁵  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ⁶  of Judea and Samaria.

Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.

How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ¹  the Son of God, and profanes ²  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ³  and insults the Spirit of grace?

King Uzziah suffered from a skin disease until the day he died. He lived in separate quarters, ¹  afflicted by a skin disease and banned from the Lord’s temple. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace and ruled over the people of the land.