Have mercy on me, for I am in distress! My eyes grow dim ¹  from suffering. ²  I have lost my strength. ³ 

My flesh and my heart may grow weak, ¹  but God always ²  protects my heart and gives me stability. 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.

The time is coming when Jacob will take root; ¹  Israel will blossom and grow branches. The produce ²  will fill the surface of the world. ³ 

The dry soil will become a pool of water, the parched ground springs of water. Where jackals once lived and sprawled out, grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.

I will make cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the wilderness; I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together in the desert.

¹ The rain and snow fall from the sky and do not return, but instead water the earth and make it produce and yield crops, and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

They will be like a shrub ¹  in the desert. They will not experience good things even when they happen. It will be as though they were growing in the desert, in a salt land where no one can live.

In a good field, by abundant waters, it was planted to grow branches, bear fruit, and become a beautiful vine.

His young shoots will grow; his splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

Instead, they tried to row ¹  back to land, ²  but they were not able to do so ³  because the storm kept growing worse and worse. ⁴ 

But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ¹  will rise with healing wings, ²  and you will skip about ³  like calves released from the stall.

Now when Jesus saw a large crowd ¹  around him, he gave orders to go to the other side of the lake. ² 

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad ¹  and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is known by its fruit.

And the child kept growing ¹  and becoming strong ²  in spirit, and he was in the wilderness ³  until the day he was revealed ⁴  to Israel.

It is like a mustard seed ¹  that a man took and sowed ²  in his garden. It ³  grew and became a tree, ⁴  and the wild birds ⁵  nested in its branches.” ⁶ 

Now when the commander ¹  of the temple guard ²  and the chief priests heard this report, ³  they were greatly puzzled concerning it, ⁴  wondering what this could ⁵  be.

For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift ¹  to strengthen you,

But God gives it a body just as he planned, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.

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.