For it seemed best to the Holy Spirit and to us ¹  not to place any greater burden on you than these necessary rules: ² 

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, ¹  nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers,

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!

God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

And they did this not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

but now he has reconciled you ¹  by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him –

and a sound message that cannot be criticized, so that any opponent will be at a loss, ¹  because he has nothing evil to say about us.

In the same way ¹  God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, ²  and so he intervened with an oath,

By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, ¹  he received the ability to procreate, ²  because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.

“This is the law ¹  of the Nazirite who vows to the Lord his offering according to his separation, as well as whatever else he can provide. ²  Thus he must fulfill ³  his vow that he makes, according to the law of his separation.”

(The Danites failed to conquer their territory, ¹  so they went up and fought with Leshem and captured it. They put the sword to it, took possession of it, and lived in it. They renamed it ²  Dan after their ancestor. ³ )

They captured the two Midianite generals, Oreb and Zeeb. ¹  They executed Oreb on the rock of Oreb and Zeeb ²  in the winepress of Zeeb. They chased the Midianites ³  and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now on the other side of the Jordan River. ⁴ 

Then I said, “Lord, ¹  have you completely rejected the nation of Judah? Do you despise ²  the city of Zion? Why have you struck us with such force that we are beyond recovery? ³  We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it. We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. ⁴ 

Tell them the Lord who rules over all says, ¹  ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. ²  I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. ³  The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’ ⁴ 

Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language ¹  they have begun to do this, then ²  nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. ³ 

The blessings of your father are greater than ¹  the blessings of the eternal mountains ²  or the desirable things of the age-old hills. They will be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of the prince of his brothers. ³ 

Now Moses ¹  was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert ²  and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb. ³ 

They traveled from Pi-hahiroth, ¹  and passed through the middle of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and camped in Marah.

This is the land we brought under our control at that time: The territory extending from Aroer ¹  by the Wadi Arnon and half the Gilead hill country with its cities I gave to the Reubenites and Gadites. ²