Let the priests, those who serve the Lord, weep from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. ¹  Let them say, “Have pity, O Lord, on your people; please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked, to become a proverb ²  among the nations. Why should it be said ³  among the peoples, “Where is their God?”

But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “The only way I will make a treaty with you is if you let me gouge out the right eye of every one of you and in so doing humiliate all Israel!”

Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at? At whom have you shouted, ¹  and looked so arrogantly? ²  At the Holy One of Israel! ³ 

he will swallow up death permanently. ¹  The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face, and remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. Indeed, the Lord has announced it! ² 

Whom have you taunted and hurled insults at? At whom have you shouted and looked so arrogantly? ¹  At the Holy One of Israel! ² 

Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ¹  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ²  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ³ 

in order to shoot down the innocent ¹  in secluded places. They shoot at him suddenly and are unafraid of retaliation. ² 

Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ¹  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ²  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ³ 

O Lord, according to all your justice, ¹  please turn your raging anger ²  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

You implement the regulations of Omri, and all the practices of Ahab’s dynasty; ¹  you follow their policies. ²  Therefore I will make you an appalling sight, ³  the city’s ⁴  inhabitants will be taunted derisively, ⁵  and nations will mock all of you.” ⁶ 

Those ¹  who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads

“‘But the person ¹  who acts defiantly, ²  whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults ³  the Lord. ⁴  That person ⁵  must be cut off ⁶  from among his people.

People ¹  have opened their mouths against me, they have struck my cheek in scorn; ²  they unite ³  together against me.

I will prepare for them a healthy ¹  planting. They will no longer be victims ²  of famine in the land and will no longer bear the insults of the nations.

So this is what the sovereign Lord says: I vow ¹  that the nations around you will endure insults as well.

Then Jesus began to criticize openly the cities ¹  in which he had done many of his miracles, because they did not repent.

One of the experts in religious law ¹  answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things you insult ²  us too.”

Therefore I am content with ¹  weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties ²  for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

An elder must be blameless, ¹  the husband of one wife, ²  with faithful children ³  who cannot be charged with dissipation or rebellion.

For the overseer ¹  must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work, ²  not arrogant, not prone to anger, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain.