When you try to cultivate ¹  the ground it will no longer yield ²  its best ³  for you. You will be a homeless wanderer ⁴  on the earth.”

When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, ¹  because the Lord blessed him. ² 

May the sovereign God ¹  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ²  Then you will become ³  a large nation. ⁴ 

He named the second child Ephraim, ¹  saying, ²  “Certainly ³  God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.

You can present them to the Lord as an offering of first fruit, ¹  but they must not go up to the altar for a soothing aroma.

We remember ¹  the fish we used to eat ²  freely ³  in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.

Now Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree in Migron, on the outskirts of Gibeah. The army that was with him numbered about six hundred men.

Let them be ¹  like a snail that melts away as it moves along! ²  Let them be like ³  stillborn babies ⁴  that never see the sun!

Then ¹  observers ²  will say, “Yes indeed, the godly are rewarded! ³  Yes indeed, there is a God who judges ⁴  in the earth!”

You saturate ¹  its furrows, and soak ²  its plowed ground. ³  With rain showers you soften its soil, ⁴  and make its crops grow. ⁵ 

Your lips are like a scarlet thread; ¹  your mouth is lovely. Your forehead ²  behind your veil is like a slice of pomegranate.

Daughter Zion ¹  is left isolated, like a hut in a vineyard, or a shelter in a cucumber field; she is a besieged city. ² 

I have seen their behavior, ¹  but I will heal them and give them rest, and I will once again console those who mourn. ² 

ט (Tet) Those who died by the sword ¹  are better off than those who die of hunger, ²  those who ³  waste away, ⁴  struck down ⁵  from lack of ⁶  food. ⁷ 

They ¹  have destroyed our ²  vines; ³  they have turned our ⁴  fig trees into mere splinters. They have completely stripped off the bark ⁵  and thrown them aside; the ⁶  twigs are stripped bare. ⁷ 

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. ¹  For apart from the law, sin is dead.

Also greet the church in their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, ¹  who was the first convert ²  to Christ in the province of Asia. ³ 

who is the down payment ¹  of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, ²  to the praise of his glory.

Here is another way that our people ¹  can learn ²  to engage in good works to meet pressing needs and so not be unfruitful.