but I have prayed for you, Simon, ¹  that your faith may not fail. ²  When ³  you have turned back, ⁴  strengthen ⁵  your brothers.”

With many other words he testified ¹  and exhorted them saying, “Save yourselves from this perverse ²  generation!”

So Paul ¹  entered ²  the synagogue ³  and spoke out fearlessly ⁴  for three months, addressing ⁵  and convincing ⁶  them about the kingdom of God. ⁷ 

Even some of the provincial authorities ¹  who were his friends sent ²  a message ³  to him, urging him not to venture ⁴  into the theater.

Now because we are fellow workers, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. ¹ 

First of all, then, I urge that requests, ¹  prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, ² 

Do not address an older man harshly ¹  but appeal to him as a father. Speak to younger men as brothers, ² 

So he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

But now ¹  I ask you, lady (not as if I were ²  writing a new commandment ³  to you, but the one ⁴  we have had from the beginning), ⁵  that ⁶  we love one another.

Esau said to his father, “Do you have only that one blessing, my father? Bless me too!” ¹  Then Esau wept loudly. ² 

Then Moses said to the Lord, ¹  “O ²  my Lord, ³  I am not an eloquent man, ⁴  neither in the past ⁵  nor since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” ⁶ 

Moses said to Pharaoh, “You may have the honor over me ¹  – when shall I pray for you, your servants, and your people, for the frogs to be removed ²  from you and your houses, so that ³  they will be left ⁴  only in the Nile?”

Pharaoh said, “I will release you ¹  so that you may sacrifice ²  to the Lord your God in the desert. Only you must not go very far. ³  Do ⁴  pray for me.”

Everyone who remains in your house will come to bow before him for a little money ¹  and for a scrap of bread. Each will say, ‘Assign me to a priestly task so I can eat a scrap of bread.’”

Saul ¹  again replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel. Go back with me so I may worship the Lord your God.”

I have now come to speak with my lord the king about this matter, because the people have made me fearful. ¹  But your servant said, ‘I will speak to the king! Perhaps the king will do what his female servant ²  asks.

He said to the king, “Don’t think badly of me, my lord, and don’t recall the sin of your servant on the day when you, my lord the king, left ¹  Jerusalem! ²  Please don’t call it to mind!

Solomon was told, “Look, Adonijah fears you; ¹  see, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘May King Solomon solemnly promise ²  me today that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’”

So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord and did not obey the Lord’s instructions; he even tried to conjure up underworld spirits. ¹ 

All the relatives ¹  of a poor person hate him; ²  how much more do his friends avoid him – he pursues them ³  with words, but they do not respond. ⁴