The next day, because we were violently battered by the storm, ¹  they began throwing the cargo overboard, ² 

You will probably ask yourself, ¹  ‘Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ ²  It is because you have sinned so much. ³ 

does not oppress anyone, but gives the debtor back whatever was given in pledge, ¹  does not commit robbery, ²  but gives his bread to the hungry and clothes the naked,

Rescue me, ¹  I pray, from the hand ²  of my brother Esau, ³  for I am afraid he will come ⁴  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ⁵ 

He delivers me from my enemies; ¹  you snatch me away ²  from those who attack me; ³  you rescue me from violent men.

May the evil deeds of the wicked ¹  come to an end! ²  But make the innocent ³  secure, ⁴  O righteous God, you who examine ⁵  inner thoughts and motives! ⁶ 

O Lord, shelter me from the power ¹  of the wicked! Protect me from violent men, who plan to knock me over. ² 

At that time ¹  the sovereign master ²  will wash the excrement ³  from Zion’s women, he will rinse the bloodstains from Jerusalem’s midst, ⁴  as he comes to judge and to bring devastation. ⁵ 

For I, the Lord, love justice and hate robbery and sin. I will repay them because of my faithfulness; ¹  I will make a permanent covenant with them.

Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ¹  is to be a hideout for robbers? ²  You had better take note! ³  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

I will certainly save you. You will not fall victim to violence. ¹  You will escape with your life ²  because you trust in me. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” ³ 

Make this announcement in ¹  the fortresses of Ashdod and in the fortresses in the land of Egypt. Say this: “Gather on the hills around Samaria! ²  Observe the many acts of violence ³  taking place within the city, ⁴  the oppressive deeds ⁵  occurring in it.” ⁶ 

You wrongly evict widows ¹  among my people from their cherished homes. You defraud their children ²  of their prized inheritance. ³ 

But Saul was trying to destroy ¹  the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off ²  both men and women and put them in prison. ³ 

Then the man who was possessed by ¹  the evil spirit jumped on ²  them and beat them all into submission. ³  He prevailed ⁴  against them so that they fled from that house naked and wounded.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an arrogant ¹  man. But I was treated with mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief,

“When a person sins and commits a trespass ¹  against the Lord by deceiving his fellow citizen ²  in regard to something held in trust, or a pledge, or something stolen, or by extorting something from his fellow citizen, ³ 

May his blood whirl over ¹  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ²  May the males of Joab’s house ³  never cease to have ⁴  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ⁵  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

So ¹  I again considered ²  all the oppression ³  that continually occurs ⁴  on earth. ⁵  This is what I saw: ⁶  The oppressed ⁷  were in tears, ⁸  but no one was comforting them; no one delivers ⁹  them from the power of their oppressors.