Now, if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be my chosen people,

a people dedicated to me alone, and you will serve me as priests."

Do this because you belong to the LORD your God. From all the peoples on earth he chose you to be his own special people.

You belong to the LORD your God; he has chosen you to be his own people from among all the peoples who live on earth.

He will make you greater than any other nation that he has created, and you will bring praise and honor to his name. You will be his own people, as he promised."

At that time even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with the words "Dedicated to the LORD." The cooking pots in the Temple will be as sacred as the bowls before the altar.

Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in all Judah will be set apart for use in the worship of the LORD Almighty. The people who offer sacrifices will use them for boiling the meat of the sacrifices. When that time comes, there will no longer be any merchant in the Temple of the LORD Almighty.

Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love

But you are the chosen race, the King's priests, the holy nation, God's own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.

"Give me the offerings from your grain, your wine, and your olive oil when they are due. "Give me your first-born sons.

"Celebrate the Harvest Festival when you begin to harvest your crops. "Celebrate the Festival of Shelters in the autumn, when you gather the fruit from your vineyards and orchards.

"I am giving you all the best of the first produce which the Israelites give me each year: olive oil, wine, and grain.

How terrible it will be for you that have such an easy life in Zion and for you that feel safe in Samaria---you great leaders of this great nation Israel, you to whom the people go for help!

If the first piece of bread is given to God, then the whole loaf is his also; and if the roots of a tree are offered to God, the branches are his also.

Greetings also to the church that meets in their house. Greetings to my dear friend Epaenetus, who was the first in the province of Asia to believe in Christ.

By his own will he brought us into being through the word of truth, so that we should have first place among all his creatures.

They are the men who have kept themselves pure by not having sexual relations with women; they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from the rest of the human race and are the first ones to be offered to God and to the Lamb.

The LORD says, "I have something to say about Israel's neighbors who have ruined the land I gave to my people Israel. I will take those wicked people away from their countries like an uprooted plant, and I will rescue Judah from them.

They are attacked by all who find them. Their enemies say, 'They sinned against the LORD, and so what we have done is not wrong. Their ancestors trusted in the LORD, and they themselves should have remained faithful to him.'

Then you must tell him that I, the LORD, say, 'Israel is my first-born son.

I told you to let my son go, so that he might worship me, but you refused. Now I am going to kill your first-born son.' "

I would quickly defeat their enemies and conquer all their foes.

Those who hate me would bow in fear before me; their punishment would last forever.

But God let no one oppress them; to protect them, he warned the kings:

"Don't harm my chosen servants; do not touch my prophets."

He made the Egyptians hate his people and treat his servants with deceit.

They did God's mighty acts and performed miracles in Egypt.

He turned their rivers into blood and killed all their fish.

God commanded, and flies and gnats swarmed throughout the whole country.

he destroyed their grapevines and fig trees and broke down all the trees.

they ate all the plants in the land; they ate all the crops.

"Those who are angry with you will know the shame of defeat. Those who fight against you will die

I was angry with my people; I treated them as no longer mine: I put them in your power, and you showed them no mercy; even the aged you treated harshly.

Tell your children about it; they will tell their children, who in turn will tell the next generation.

They have destroyed our grapevines and chewed up our fig trees. They have stripped off the bark, till the branches are white.

Cry, you people, like a young woman who mourns the death of the man she was going to marry.

and I am very angry with the nations that enjoy quiet and peace. For while I was holding back my anger against my people, those nations made the sufferings of my people worse.

Anyone who strikes you strikes what is most precious to me." So the LORD Almighty sent me with this message for the nations that had plundered his people:

"I will make Jerusalem like a cup of wine; the nations around her will drink and stagger like drunks. And when they besiege Jerusalem, the cities of the rest of Judah will also be besieged.

At that time I will terrify all their horses and make all their riders go crazy. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will make the horses of their enemies blind.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?"

"Who are you, Lord?" he asked. "I am Jesus, whom you persecute," the voice said.