I am afraid that ¹  when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I will grieve for ²  many of those who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced.

For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. ¹  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

Gideon said to God, “Please do not get angry at me, when I ask for just one more sign. ¹  Please allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make only the fleece dry, while the ground around it is covered with dew.” ² 

The real mother ¹  spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were aroused. ²  She said, “My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don’t kill him!” ³  But the other woman said, “Neither one of us will have him! Let them cut him in two!”

Now, don’t be stubborn ¹  like your fathers! Submit ²  to the Lord and come to his sanctuary which he has permanently consecrated. Serve the Lord your God so that he might relent from his raging anger. ³ 

Do not stare at me because ¹  I am dark, for ²  the sun has burned my skin. ³  My brothers ⁴  were angry ⁵  with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards. Alas, my own vineyard ⁶  I could not keep! ⁷ 

For ¹  the burial place is already prepared; ²  it has been made deep and wide for the king. ³  The firewood is piled high on it. ⁴  The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone, will ignite it.

You will lose your hold on the land ¹  which I gave to you as a permanent possession. I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about. For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.” ² 

But you, Lord, know all their plots to kill me. Do not pardon their crimes! Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! ¹  Let them be brought down in defeat before you! Deal with them while you are still angry! ² 

Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were broken in pieces without distinction ¹  and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors that the wind carries away. Not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the statue became a large mountain that filled the entire earth.

Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths ¹  about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. ² 

Gad went to David and told him, “Shall seven ¹  years of famine come upon your land? Or shall you flee for three months from your enemy with him in hot pursuit? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now decide ²  what I should tell the one who sent me.”