The Beloved: I was a wall, and my breasts were like fortress towers. ¹  Then I found favor ²  in his eyes. ³ 

For tyrants will disappear, those who taunt will vanish, and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminated ¹  –

“‘For testing will come, and what will happen when the scepter, which the sword despises, is no more? ¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’

So these men concluded, ¹  “We won’t find any pretext against this man Daniel unless it is ²  in connection with the law of his God.”

and they cast lots for my people. They traded ¹  a boy for a prostitute; they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. ² 

Then the slave threw himself to the ground ¹  before him, saying, ²  ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’

Then his fellow slave threw himself down and begged him, ¹  ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you.’

But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’

Herod said, “I had John ¹  beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things?” So Herod wanted to learn about Jesus. ² 

But the worker ¹  answered him, ‘Sir, leave it alone this year too, until I dig around it and put fertilizer ²  on it.

But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir; let’s kill him so the inheritance will be ours!’

The ¹  chief priests and the experts in the law ²  were trying to find some way ³  to execute ⁴  Jesus, ⁵  for they were afraid of the people. ⁶ 

[But Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”] ¹  Then ²  they threw dice ³  to divide his clothes. ⁴ 

After they had beaten them severely, ¹  they threw them into prison and commanded ²  the jailer to guard them securely.

Then you’re not that Egyptian who started a rebellion ¹  and led the four thousand men of the ‘Assassins’ ²  into the wilderness ³  some time ago?” ⁴ 

Because they were afraid ¹  that we would run aground on the rocky coast, ²  they threw out ³  four anchors from the stern and wished ⁴  for day to appear. ⁵ 

“Therefore be advised ¹  that this salvation from God ²  has been sent to the Gentiles; ³  they ⁴  will listen!” ⁵ 

Now the law came in ¹  so that the transgression ²  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

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.

For this reason, if food causes my brother or sister to sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I may not cause one of them ¹  to sin.