Before the kindling is even placed under your pots, ¹  he ²  will sweep it away along with both the raw and cooked meat. ³ 

Just as you do not know the path ¹  of the wind, or how the bones form ²  in the womb of a pregnant woman, ³  so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

At that time ¹  the crops given by the Lord will bring admiration and honor; ²  the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight to those who remain in Israel. ³ 

It will be as when one gathers the grain harvest, and his hand gleans the ear of grain. It will be like one gathering the ears of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

He cuts down cedars and acquires a cypress ¹  or an oak. He gets ²  trees from the forest; he plants a cedar ³  and the rain makes it grow.

I planted you in the land like a special vine of the very best stock. Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes? ¹ 

The Lord commanded the enemy, ¹  “March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. ²  But do not destroy them completely. Strip off their branches for these people do not belong to the Lord. ³ 

She reared one of her cubs; he became a young lion. He learned to tear prey; he devoured people. ¹ 

Consider Assyria, ¹  a cedar in Lebanon, ²  with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade, and extremely tall; its top reached into the clouds.

“‘But you, mountains of Israel, will grow your branches, and bear your fruit for my people Israel; for they will arrive soon. ¹ 

Even if they raise their children, I will take away every last one of them. ¹  Woe to them! For I will turn away from them.

Ask the Lord for rain in the season of the late spring rains ¹  – the Lord who causes thunderstorms – and he will give everyone showers of rain and green growth in the field.

The ¹  seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth ²  choke the word, ³  so it produces nothing.

Other seed fell among the thorns, ¹  and they grew up and choked it, ²  and it did not produce grain.

but ¹  worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, ²  and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, ³  and it produces nothing.

He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

Brothers and sisters, ¹  do not be children in your thinking. Instead, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.

Now God ¹  who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your supply of seed and will cause the harvest of your righteousness to grow.

because the person who sows to his own flesh ¹  will reap corruption ²  from the flesh, ³  but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God – a mature person, attaining to ¹  the measure of Christ’s full stature. ²