¹   See, the Lord's hand is not too short to save,
          nor his ear too dull to hear.
²   Rather, your iniquities have been barriers
          between you and your God,
     and your sins have hidden his face from you
          so that he does not hear.
³   For your hands are defiled with blood,
          and your fingers with iniquity;
     your lips have spoken lies,
          your tongue mutters wickedness.
⁴   No one brings suit justly,
          no one goes to law honestly;
     they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies,
          conceiving mischief and begetting iniquity.
⁵   They hatch adders' eggs,
          and weave the spider's web;
     whoever eats their eggs dies,
          and the crushed egg hatches out a viper.
⁶   Their webs cannot serve as clothing;
          they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
     Their works are works of iniquity,
          and deeds of violence are in their hands.
⁷   Their feet run to evil,
          and they rush to shed innocent blood;
     their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity,
          desolation and destruction are in their highways.
⁸   The way of peace they do not know,
          and there is no justice in their paths.
     Their roads they have made crooked;
          no one who walks in them knows peace.

⁹   Therefore justice is far from us,
          and righteousness does not reach us;
     we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness;
          and for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
¹⁰  We grope like the blind along a wall,
          groping like those who have no eyes;
     we stumble at noon as in the twilight,
          among the vigorous as though we were dead.
¹¹  We all growl like bears;
          like doves we moan mournfully.
     We wait for justice, but there is none;
          for salvation, but it is far from us.
¹²  For our transgressions before you are many,
          and our sins testify against us.
     Our transgressions indeed are with us,
          and we know our iniquities:
¹³  transgressing, and denying the LORD,
          and turning away from following our God,
     talking oppression and revolt,
          conceiving lying words and uttering them from the heart.
¹⁴  Justice is turned back,
          and righteousness stands at a distance;
     for truth stumbles in the public square,
          and uprightness cannot enter.
¹⁵  Truth is lacking,
          and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.

     The LORD saw it, and it displeased him
          that there was no justice.
¹⁶  He saw that there was no one,
          and was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
     so his own arm brought him victory,
          and his righteousness upheld him.
¹⁷  He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
          and a helmet of salvation on his head;
     he put on garments of vengeance for clothing,
          and wrapped himself in fury as in a mantle.
¹⁸  According to their deeds, so will he repay;
          wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies;
          to the coastlands he will render requital.
¹⁹  So those in the west shall fear the name of the LORD,
          and those in the east, his glory;
     for he will come like a pent-up stream
          that the wind of the LORD drives on.

²⁰  And he will come to Zion as Redeemer,
          to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the LORD.
²¹And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children's children, says the LORD, from now on and forever.

^1:15You are aware that all who are in Asia have turned away from me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. ¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; ¹⁷when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me ¹⁸— may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well how much service he rendered in Ephesus.

^2:1You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; ²and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. ³Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier's aim is to please the enlisting officer. ⁵And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. ⁶It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the first share of the crops. ⁷Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things.

⁸Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David — that is my gospel, ⁹for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. ¹⁰Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. ¹¹The saying is sure:
     If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
¹²  if we endure, we will also reign with him;
     if we deny him, he will also deny us;
¹³  if we are faithless, he remains faithful —
     for he cannot deny himself.

¹He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

²Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” ⁵But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. ⁶But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

¹⁰Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; ¹²and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

¹³People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.