Then I considered ¹  all the skillful work ²  that is done: Surely it is nothing more than ³  competition ⁴  between one person and another. ⁵  This also is profitless – like ⁶  chasing the wind.

Ariel is as good as dead ¹  – Ariel, the town David besieged! ²  Keep observing your annual rituals, celebrate your festivals on schedule. ³ 

Go west ¹  across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus ²  and see. Send someone east to Kedar ³  and have them look carefully. See if such a thing as this has ever happened:

The Lord said to me, ¹  “I have made you like a metal assayer to test my people like ore. ²  You are to observe them and evaluate how they behave.” ³ 

and follows my statutes and observes my regulations by carrying them out. ¹  That man ²  is righteous; he will certainly live, ³  declares the sovereign Lord.

“But suppose he in turn has a son who notices all the sins his father commits, considers them, and does not follow his father’s example. ¹ 

I gave them my statutes ¹  and revealed my regulations to them. The one ²  who carries ³  them out will live by them! ⁴ 

I did this ¹  because they did not observe my regulations, they rejected my statutes, they desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on ²  their fathers’ idols.

But you must return ¹  to your God, by maintaining love and justice, and by waiting ²  for your God to return to you. ³ 

saying, “Where is the one who is born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose ¹  and have come to worship him.”

Then ¹  he ²  sat down opposite the offering box, ³  and watched the crowd putting coins into it. Many rich people were throwing in large amounts.

This man was listening to Paul as he was speaking. When Paul ¹  stared ²  intently at him and saw he had faith to be healed,

But some from the religious party of the Pharisees ¹  who had believed stood up and said, “It is necessary ²  to circumcise the Gentiles ³  and to order them to observe ⁴  the law of Moses.”

A man named Ananias, ¹  a devout man according to the law, ²  well spoken of by all the Jews who live there, ³ 

When day came, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed ¹  a bay ²  with a beach, ³  where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.

For no one is declared righteous before him ¹  by the works of the law, ²  for through the law comes ³  the knowledge of sin.

The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law ¹  or by believing what you heard? ² 

Before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, I solemnly charge you to carry out these commands without prejudice or favoritism of any kind. ¹ 

You, however, ¹  have followed my teaching, my ²  way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance,

But see how great he must be, if ¹  Abraham the patriarch gave him a tithe ²  of his plunder.