The Lord answered, ¹  “This will happen ²  because my people are foolish. They do not know me. They are like children who have no sense. ³  They have no understanding. They are skilled at doing evil. They do not know how to do good.”

I will go to the leaders ¹  and speak with them. Surely they know what the Lord demands. ²  Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ³  Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority and refuse to submit to him. ⁴ 

Jesus answered ¹  her, “If you had known ²  the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water ³  to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ⁴ 

because I have given them the words you have given me. They ¹  accepted ²  them ³  and really ⁴  understand ⁵  that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.

So I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

So then, even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong, or on account of the one who was wronged, but to reveal to you your eagerness on our behalf ¹  before God.

For from you the message of the Lord ¹  has echoed forth not just in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place reports of your faith in God have spread, ²  so that we do not need to say anything.

Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul replied, “I am terribly troubled! The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He does not answer me – not by the prophets nor by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what I should do.”

They replied, “The man questioned us ¹  thoroughly ²  about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ ³  So we answered him in this way. ⁴  How could we possibly know ⁵  that he would say, ⁶  ‘Bring your brother down’?”

Prior to this ¹  Absalom had set up a monument ²  and dedicated it to himself in the King’s Valley, reasoning “I have no son who will carry on my name.” He named the monument after himself, and to this day it is known as Absalom’s Memorial.

Now he was acting as the guardian ¹  of Hadassah ²  (that is, Esther), the daughter of his uncle, for neither her father nor her mother was alive. ³  This young woman was very attractive and had a beautiful figure. ⁴  When her father and mother died, Mordecai had raised her ⁵  as if she were his own daughter.

Edom ¹  says, “Though we are devastated, we will once again build the ruined places.” So the Lord who rules over all ²  responds, “They indeed may build, but I will overthrow. They will be known as ³  the land of evil, the people with whom the Lord is permanently displeased.

No longer will your name be ¹  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ²  because I will make you ³  the father of a multitude of nations.

Run there quickly, ¹  for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) ² 

The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. ¹  He is the ancestor of the Ammonites of today.

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has enabled you to know all this, there is no one as wise and discerning ¹  as you are!

People from every country ¹  came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.

They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest. ¹  The men looked at each other in astonishment. ² 

The house of Israel ¹  called its name “manna.” ²  It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted ³  like wafers with honey.

and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.