¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.^(A) Therefore God is not ashamed^(B) to be called their God,^(C) for he has prepared a city^(D) for them.

¹¹ Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus^(A) and asking, “Where is he?”

³³ The men took this as a good sign and were quick to pick up his word. “Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad!” they said.

“Go and get him,” the king said. When Ben-Hadad came out, Ahab had him come up into his chariot.

⁹ Within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin^(A) had gathered in Jerusalem. And on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people were sitting in the square before the house of God, greatly distressed by the occasion and because of the rain.

¹¹ But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys^(A) that drinks rain from heaven.^(B)

¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.^(A) Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts^(B) of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

²⁰ The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky,^(A) but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers.

²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds;^(A)