¹¹ “I am^(A) the good shepherd.^(B) The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.^{(C) 12} The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.^(D) Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd;^(E) I know my sheep^(F) and my sheep know me— ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father^(G)—and I lay down my life for the sheep.^(H)

⁵ “Do not come any closer,”^(A) God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”^(B)

¹⁷ “Make an atonement cover^(A) of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. ¹⁸ And make two cherubim^(B) out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover.

²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”^(A)

¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^(B)

Stand Firm

¹³ But we ought always to thank God for you,^(A) brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits^[a](B) to be saved^(C) through the sanctifying work of the Spirit^(D) and through belief in the truth. ¹⁴ He called you^(E) to this through our gospel,^(F) that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁵ not giving up meeting together,^(A) as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another^(B)—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.^(C)

¹⁸ He chose to give us birth^(A) through the word of truth,^(B) that we might be a kind of firstfruits^(C) of all he created.