yet because this widow keeps on bothering me, I will give her justice, or in the end she will wear me out ¹  by her unending pleas.’” ² 

Therefore be alert, ¹  remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning ²  each one of you with tears.

For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

(for while he lived among them day after day, that righteous man was tormented in his righteous soul ¹  by the lawless deeds he saw and heard ² )

‘I know your deeds: your love, faith, ¹  service, and steadfast endurance. ²  In fact, ³  your more recent deeds are greater than your earlier ones.

Why do you forget ¹  the Lord, who made you, who stretched out the sky ²  and founded the earth? Why do you constantly tremble all day long ³  at the anger of the oppressor, when he makes plans to destroy? Where is the anger of the oppressor? ⁴ 

You are to put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod, stones of memorial for the sons of Israel, and Aaron will bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for a memorial. ¹ 

And the staff of the man whom I choose will blossom; so I will rid myself of the complaints of the Israelites, which they murmur against you.”

As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.

At that time I also warned you, ¹  ‘If you disobey, ²  I will not drive out the Canaanites ³  before you. They will ensnare you ⁴  and their gods will lure you away.’” ⁵ 

So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’

The rest of the events of Abijah’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah. ¹  Abijah and Jeroboam had been at war with each other.

May the godly strike me in love and correct me! May my head not refuse ¹  choice oil! ²  Indeed, my prayer is a witness against their evil deeds. ³ 

You assist ¹  those who delight in doing what is right, ²  who observe your commandments. ³  Look, you were angry because we violated them continually. How then can we be saved? ⁴ 

Lord, you coerced me into being a prophet, and I allowed you to do it. You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. ¹  Now I have become a constant laughingstock. Everyone ridicules me.

Now when Jesus ¹  realized what they were thinking, he said to them, ²  “Every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed, ³  and no town or house divided against itself will stand.

He said to them, “Come with me privately to an isolated place and rest a while” (for many were coming and going, and there was no time to eat).

The ¹  master commended the dishonest ²  manager because he acted shrewdly. ³  For the people ⁴  of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries ⁵  than the people ⁶  of light.

But stay alert at all times, ¹  praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that must ²  happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

By all these things, ¹  I have shown you that by working in this way we must help ²  the weak, ³  and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ⁴