For he says, “I heard you at the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” ¹  Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!

I say again, let no one think that I am a fool. ¹  But if you do, then at least accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.

You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, ¹  that it may give grace to those who hear.

For there will be a time when people ¹  will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, ²  they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. ³ 

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town ¹  and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.”

after they were disobedient long ago ¹  when God patiently waited ²  in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark ³  a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.

Now it was for this very purpose ¹  that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, ²  so that though ³  they were judged in the flesh ⁴  by human standards ⁵  they may live spiritually ⁶  by God’s standards. ⁷ 

Blessed is the one who reads the words of this ¹  prophecy aloud, ²  and blessed are ³  those who hear and obey ⁴  the things written in it, because the time is near! ⁵ 

The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come ¹  to you in a dense cloud, ²  so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you.” ³  And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

They ¹  must not discriminate in judgment, but hear the lowly ²  and the great alike. Nor should they be intimidated by human beings, for judgment belongs to God. If the matter being adjudicated is too difficult for them, they should bring it before me for a hearing.

You ¹  stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he ²  said to me, “Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. ³  Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children.”

Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude ¹  be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite ²  and you do not lend ³  him anything; he will cry out to the Lord against you and you will be regarded as having sinned. ⁴ 

The person who pays no attention ¹  to the priest currently serving the Lord your God there, or to the verdict – that person must die, so that you may purge evil from Israel.

This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ¹  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”

if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commandments and statutes that are written in this scroll of the law. But you must turn to him ¹  with your whole mind and being.

I also call on you ¹  to love the Lord your God, to obey him and be loyal to him, for he gives you life and enables you to live continually ²  in the land the Lord promised to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

When the woman came to Saul and saw how terrified he was, she said to him, “Your servant has done what you asked. ¹  I took my life into my own hands and did what you told me. ² 

Absalom instructed his servants, “Look! When Amnon is drunk ¹  and I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon down,’ kill him then and there. Don’t fear! Is it not I who have given you these instructions? Be strong and courageous!” ² 

I have now come to speak with my lord the king about this matter, because the people have made me fearful. ¹  But your servant said, ‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what his female servant ²  asks.