We have rebelled and tried to deceive the Lord; we turned back from following our God. We stir up ¹  oppression and rebellion; we tell lies we concocted in our minds. ² 

Ephraim will be like a bird; what they value ¹  will fly away. They will not bear children – they will not enjoy pregnancy – they will not even conceive! ² 

so that your gift may be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. ¹ 

For this is certain: ¹  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ² 

You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

Then the Lord’s angel said to her, “You are now ¹  pregnant and are about to give birth ²  to a son. You are to name him Ishmael, ³  for the Lord has heard your painful groans. ⁴ 

Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink. ¹ 

When the stronger females were in heat, ¹  Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches.

So David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went to her and had marital relations with her. ¹  She gave birth to a son, and David ²  named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved the child ³ 

“Listen to me, O family of Jacob, ¹  all you who are left from the family of Israel, ²  you who have been carried from birth, ³  you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. ⁴ 

When the Lord first spoke ¹  through ²  Hosea, he ³  said to him, ⁴  “Go marry ⁵  a prostitute ⁶  who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, ⁷  because the nation ⁸  continually commits spiritual prostitution ⁹  by turning away from the Lord.”

If you then, although you are evil, ¹  know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts ²  to those who ask him!

If you then, although you are ¹  evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit ²  to those who ask him!”

Everyone who has been fathered ¹  by God does not practice sin, ²  because ³  God’s ⁴  seed ⁵  resides in him, and thus ⁶  he is not able to sin, because he has been fathered by God.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ ¹  has been fathered ²  by God, and everyone who loves the father ³  loves the child fathered by him. ⁴ 

Finally he told her his secret. ¹  He said to her, “My hair has never been cut, ²  for I have been dedicated to God ³  from the time I was conceived. ⁴  If my head ⁵  were shaved, my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be just like all other men.”