What good is it, my brothers and sisters, ¹  if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith ²  save him? ³ 

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” ¹  and he was called God’s friend. ² 

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, ¹  forgiving ²  us our sins and cleansing ³  us from all unrighteousness.

If you know that he is righteous, you also know ¹  that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered ²  by him.

Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness ¹  is righteous, just as Jesus ²  is righteous.

By this ¹  the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed: Everyone who does not practice righteousness – the one who does not love his fellow Christian ²  – is not of God.

(Look! I am coming soon, and my reward is with me to pay ¹  each one according to what he has done!

If you mistreat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one else is with us, realize ¹  that God is witness to your actions.” ² 

Therefore, tell the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord. I will bring you out ¹  from your enslavement to ²  the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, ³  and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

Everyone ¹  whose heart stirred him to action ²  and everyone whose spirit was willing ³  came and brought the offering for the Lord for the work of the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. ⁴ 

“Now, if you have shown loyalty and integrity when you made Abimelech king, if you have done right to Jerub-Baal and his family, ¹  if you have properly repaid him ²  –

all their warriors set out and traveled throughout the night. They took Saul’s corpse and the corpses of his sons from the city wall of Beth Shan and went ¹  to Jabesh, where they burned them.

You must serve me with integrity and sincerity, just as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. ¹ 

¹ Certainly you must have heard! ²  Long ago I worked it out, In ancient times I planned ³  it; and now I am bringing it to pass. The plan is this: Fortified cities will crash into heaps of ruins. ⁴ 

all the warriors went and recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons ¹  and brought them to Jabesh. They buried their remains ²  under the oak tree in Jabesh and fasted for seven days.

King Ahasuerus replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have already given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he has been hanged on the gallows because he took hostile action ¹  against the Jews.

Now all the actions carried out under his authority and his great achievements, along with an exact statement concerning the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king promoted, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia?

For the music director; according to the machalath style; ²  a well-written song ³  by David. Fools say to themselves, ⁴  “There is no God.” ⁵  They sin and commit evil deeds; ⁶  none of them does what is right. ⁷ 

So I reflected on all this, ¹  attempting to clear ²  it all up. I concluded that ³  the righteous and the wise, as well as their works, are in the hand of God; whether a person will be loved or hated ⁴  – no one knows what lies ahead. ⁵ 

I have stirred up one out of the north ¹  and he advances, one from the eastern horizon who prays in my name. ²  He steps on ³  rulers as if they were clay, like a potter treading the clay.