Look, your fasting is accompanied by ¹  arguments, brawls, and fistfights. ²  Do not fast as you do today, trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

You must be truthful, honest and upright when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ ¹  If you do, ²  the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are and will make him the object of their boasting.” ³ 

That is how ¹  they have grown fat and sleek. ²  There is no limit to the evil things they do. ³  They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor.

I take no delight ¹  when they offer up to me ²  frankincense that comes from Sheba or sweet-smelling cane imported from a faraway land. I cannot accept the burnt offerings they bring me. I get no pleasure from the sacrifices they offer to me.’ ³ 

How can you say, “We are wise! We have the law of the Lord”? The truth is, ¹  those who teach it ²  have used their writings to make it say what it does not really mean. ³ 

I will send a plague into the city ¹  and bloodshed into its streets; the slain will fall within it, by the sword that attacks it ²  from every side. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will deal with you according to your anger, and according to your envy, by which you acted spitefully against them. I will reveal myself to them when I judge you.

The ten horns mean that ten kings will arise from that kingdom. Another king will arise after them, but he will be different from the earlier ones. He will humiliate ¹  three kings.

Although you, O Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty! Do not journey to Gilgal! Do not go up to Beth Aven! ¹  Do not swear, “As surely as the Lord lives!”

Listen, you Israelites, to this message which the Lord is proclaiming against ¹  you! This message is for the entire clan I brought up ²  from the land of Egypt:

Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan ¹  who live on Mount Samaria! You ²  oppress the poor; you crush the needy. You say to your ³  husbands, “Bring us more to drink!” ⁴ 

but you rise up as an enemy against my people. ¹  You steal a robe from a friend, ²  from those who pass by peacefully as if returning from a war. ³ 

Before he could reply I asked again, “What are these two extensions ¹  of the olive trees, which are emptying out the golden oil through the two golden pipes?”

“I tell you the truth, ¹  whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven.

Meanwhile, ¹  when many thousands of the crowd had gathered so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus ²  began to speak first to his disciples, “Be on your guard against ³  the yeast of the Pharisees, ⁴  which is hypocrisy. ⁵ 

But the one who did not know his master’s will ¹  and did things worthy of punishment ²  will receive a light beating. ³  From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, ⁴  and from the one who has been entrusted with much, ⁵  even more will be asked. ⁶ 

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb and be born a second time, can he?” ¹ 

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  a time ²  is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

The hired hand, ¹  who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons ²  the sheep and runs away. ³  So the wolf attacks ⁴  the sheep and scatters them.

“What I am saying does not refer to all of you. I know the ones I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture, ¹  ‘The one who eats my bread ²  has turned against me.’ ³