“You are the salt ¹  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ²  how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

Reach agreement ¹  quickly with your accuser while on the way to court, ²  or he ³  may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the warden, and you will be thrown into prison.

And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ¹  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ²  won’t he clothe you even more, ³  you people of little faith?

But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” ¹ 

Then ¹  large crowds came to him bringing with them the lame, blind, crippled, mute, and many others. They ²  laid them at his feet, and he healed them.

Then ¹  they came to Jerusalem. ²  Jesus ³  entered the temple area ⁴  and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. ⁵  He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves,

And if ¹  this is how God clothes the wild grass, ²  which is here ³  today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ⁴  how much more ⁵  will he clothe you, you people of little faith!

Then the disciple whom ¹  Jesus loved ²  said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” So Simon Peter, when he heard that it was the Lord, tucked in his outer garment (for he had nothing on underneath it), ³  and plunged ⁴  into the sea.

But some itinerant ¹  Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name ²  of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by ³  evil spirits, saying, “I sternly warn ⁴  you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

Then ¹  one powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said, “With this kind of sudden violent force ²  Babylon the great city will be thrown down ³  and it will never be found again!

But Joash said to all those who confronted him, ¹  “Must you fight Baal’s battles? ²  Must you rescue him? Whoever takes up his cause ³  will die by morning! ⁴  If he really is a god, let him fight his own battles! ⁵  After all, it was his altar that was pulled down.” ⁶ 

He defeated the Moabites. He made them lie on the ground and then used a rope to measure them off. He put two-thirds of them to death and spared the other third. ¹  The Moabites became David’s subjects and brought tribute. ² 

Certainly we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways for the banished to be restored. ¹ 

Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa ¹  stopped, the man ²  pulled him ³  away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.

The scribe Shemaiah son of Nethanel, a Levite, wrote down their names before the king, the officials, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar, and the leaders of the priestly and Levite families. One family was drawn by lot from Eleazar, and then the next from Ithamar. ¹ 

He wrote letters mocking the Lord God of Israel and insulting him with these words: ¹  “The gods of the surrounding nations could not rescue their people from my power. Neither can Hezekiah’s god rescue his people from my power.” ² 

Disaster will overtake you; you will not know how to charm it away. ¹  Destruction will fall on you; you will not be able to appease it. Calamity will strike you suddenly, before you recognize it. ² 

So I, the Lord, tell you not to be afraid, you descendants of Jacob, my servants. ¹  Do not be terrified, people of Israel. For I will rescue you and your descendants from a faraway land where you are captives. ²  The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace. They will be secure and no one will terrify them. ³ 

Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ¹  in order to capture it. War, ²  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ³  who are attacking it. ⁴  Lord, ⁵  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ⁶ 

ב (Bet) The Lord ¹  destroyed ²  mercilessly ³  all the homes of Jacob’s descendants. ⁴  In his anger he tore down the fortified cities ⁵  of Daughter Judah. He knocked to the ground and humiliated the kingdom and its rulers. ⁶