As a result we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and afflictions you are enduring.

This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy ¹  of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering.

To do this ¹  you must hold firmly to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck in regard to the faith.

He must not be a recent convert or he may become arrogant ¹  and fall into the punishment that the devil will exact. ² 

However, ¹  without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your good deed would not be out of compulsion, but from your own willingness.

Now all discipline seems painful at the time, not joyful. ¹  But later it produces the fruit of peace and righteousness ²  for those trained by it.

Remember your leaders, who spoke God’s message to you; reflect on the outcome of their lives and imitate their faith.

And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.

You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works.

for no prophecy was ever borne of human impulse; rather, men ¹  carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Yet these men, ¹  as a result of their dreams, ²  defile the flesh, reject authority, ³  and insult ⁴  the glorious ones. ⁵ 

Indeed, ¹  you had little before I arrived, ²  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ³  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ⁴  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ⁵ 

“If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, ¹  but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. ² 

Later Moses sought diligently for the sin offering male goat, ¹  but it had actually been burnt. ²  So he became angry at Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, saying,

or with enmity he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood must kill the murderer when he meets him.

Now if they should be married to one of the men ¹  from another Israelite tribe, their inheritance would be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. ²  As a result, it will be taken from the lot of our inheritance.

She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw ¹  how much grain ²  she had gathered. Then Ruth ³  gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. ⁴ 

On every mission on which Saul sent him, David achieved success. So Saul appointed him over the men of war. This pleased not only all the army, but also Saul’s servants. ¹ 

Then Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?”

Joab reported the number of warriors ¹  to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were 500,000 soldiers.