May those who desire my vindication shout for joy and rejoice! May they continually say, ¹  “May the Lord be praised, ²  for he wants his servant to be secure.” ³ 

Do not be rash with your mouth or hasty in your heart to bring up a matter before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth! Therefore, let your words be few.

The Lover to His Beloved: (7:1) ¹  Turn ² , turn, O ³  Perfect One! ⁴  Turn, turn, that I ⁵  may stare at you! The Beloved to Her Lover: Why ⁶  do you gaze upon the Perfect One like the dance of the Mahanaim? ⁷ 

This is what the Lord, the one who made you, says – the one who formed you in the womb and helps you: “Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob, Jeshurun, ¹  whom I have chosen!

The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  told him, “Go and speak to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them, ²  ‘I, the Lord, say: ³  “You must learn a lesson from this ⁴  about obeying what I say! ⁵ 

But Baruch son of Neriah is stirring you up against us. ¹  He wants to hand us over ²  to the Babylonians ³  so that they will kill us or carry us off into exile in Babylon.”

פ (Pe) Zion spread out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has issued a decree against Jacob; his neighbors ¹  have become his enemies. Jerusalem has become like filthy garbage ²  in their midst. ³ 

ס (Samek) People cry to them, “Turn away! You are unclean! Turn away! Turn away! Don’t touch us!” So they have fled and wander about; but the nations say, ¹  “They may not stay here any longer.”

The grain offering will be an ephah with the ram, and the grain offering with the lambs will be as much as he is able to give, ¹  and a gallon ²  of olive oil with an ephah.

But you say, ‘If someone tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you would have received from me is given to God,” ¹ 

Therefore produce ¹  fruit ²  that proves your repentance, and don’t begin to say ³  to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ ⁴  For I tell you that God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones! ⁵ 

For this is the will of my Father – for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up ¹  at the last day.” ² 

And now I entrust ¹  you to God and to the message ²  of his grace. This message ³  is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to die, because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to people.

To the rest I say – I, not the Lord ¹  – if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.

If anyone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his virgin, ¹  if she is past the bloom of youth ²  and it seems necessary, he should do what he wishes; he does not sin. Let them marry.

yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live. ¹ 

Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, ¹  but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, ²  so that you were not harmed ³  in any way by us.

For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires ¹  that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to ²  each other, so that you cannot do what you want.

But for now ¹  I have considered it necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. For he is my brother, ²  coworker and fellow soldier, and your messenger ³  and minister ⁴  to me in my need. ⁵