He passed his sons through the fire ¹  in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and practiced divination, omen reading, and sorcery. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits and appointed magicians to supervise it. ²  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord and angered him. ³ 

Furthermore Manasseh killed so many innocent people, he stained Jerusalem with their blood from end to end, ¹  in addition to encouraging Judah to sin by doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ² 

Now the troops Amaziah had dismissed and had not allowed to fight in the battle ¹  raided ²  the cities of Judah from Samaria ³  to Beth Horon. They killed ⁴  3,000 people and carried off a large amount of plunder.

“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!’

“Return to your home, ¹  and declare ²  what God has done for you.” ³  So ⁴  he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole town ⁵  what Jesus ⁶  had done for him.

Besides, we have experienced discipline from ¹  our earthly fathers ²  and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life? ³ 

Another ¹  angel holding ²  a golden censer ³  came and was stationed ⁴  at the altar. A ⁵  large amount of incense was given to him to offer up, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar that is before the throne.

Now don’t let Hezekiah deceive you or mislead you like this. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue his people from my power or the power of my predecessors. So how ¹  can your gods rescue ²  you from my power?’”

But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. ¹  For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, ²  how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!

For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

The Israelites seized from their brothers 200,000 wives, sons, and daughters. They also carried off a huge amount of plunder and took it ¹  back to Samaria. ² 

So the king said to me, “Why do you appear to be depressed when you aren’t sick? What can this be other than sadness of heart?” This made me very fearful.

For the king of the north will again muster an army, one larger than before. At the end of some years he will advance with a huge army and enormous supplies.

But other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.

Jesus answered, ¹  “You ²  unbelieving ³  and perverse generation! How much longer ⁴  must I be with you? How much longer must I endure ⁵  you? ⁶  Bring him here to me.”

She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse.

He answered them, ¹  “You ²  unbelieving ³  generation! How much longer ⁴  must I be with you? How much longer must I endure ⁵  you? ⁶  Bring him to me.”

who will not receive in this age ¹  a hundred times as much – homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions ²  – and in the age to come, eternal life. ³ 

And if you lend to those from whom you hope to be repaid, ¹  what credit is that to you? Even sinners ²  lend to sinners, so that they may be repaid in full. ³ 

Jesus said, “Have ¹  the people sit down.” (Now there was a lot of grass in that place.) ²  So the men ³  sat down, about five thousand in number.