She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her. ¹ 

They will steal your wealth and loot your merchandise. They will tear down your walls and destroy your luxurious ¹  homes. Your stones, your trees, and your soil he will throw ²  into the water. ³ 

What he will honor is a god of fortresses – a god his fathers did not acknowledge he will honor with gold, silver, valuable stones, and treasured commodities.

Look! ¹  Even if ²  they flee from the destruction, Egypt will take hold ³  of them, and Memphis will bury them. The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure ⁴  – thorn bushes will occupy their homes. ⁵ 

When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame. They say ¹  to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” I will gloat over them. ²  Then they will be trampled down ³  like mud in the streets.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, ¹  he must deny ²  himself, take up his cross, ³  and follow me.

Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, ¹  “My Father, if possible, ²  let this cup ³  pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Then ¹  he said to them all, ²  “If anyone wants to become my follower, ³  he must deny ⁴  himself, take up his cross daily, ⁵  and follow me.

I can do nothing on my own initiative. ¹  Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, ²  because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the one who sent me. ³ 

Paul wanted Timothy ¹  to accompany him, and he took ²  him and circumcised ³  him because of the Jews who were in those places, ⁴  for they all knew that his father was Greek. ⁵ 

When Apollos ¹  wanted to cross over to Achaia, ²  the brothers encouraged ³  him ⁴  and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he ⁵  assisted greatly those who had believed by grace,

and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women ¹  and were inflamed in their passions ²  for one another. Men ³  committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves ¹  as obedient slaves, ²  you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? ³ 

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who calls himself a Christian ¹  who is sexually immoral, or greedy, or an idolater, or verbally abusive, ²  or a drunkard, or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person.

But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages ¹  sin? Absolutely not!

This saying ¹  is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, ²  so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, ¹  as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish ²  for any ³  to perish but for all to come to repentance. ⁴ 

But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, then she ¹  must go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel; he is unwilling to perform the duty of a brother-in-law to me!”

But his wife said to him, “If the Lord wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us. ¹  He would not have shown us all these things, or have spoken to us like this just now.”