²² The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”

But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.

¹¹ We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.^(A)

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin,^(A) and the power of sin is the law.^(B)

⁵ They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months.^(A) And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion^(B) when it strikes.

⁸ Each of the four living creatures^(A) had six wings^(B) and was covered with eyes all around,^(C) even under its wings. Day and night^(D) they never stop saying:

⁸ The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss^(A) and go to its destruction.^(B) The inhabitants of the earth^(C) whose names have not been written in the book of life^(D) from the creation of the world will be astonished^(E) when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.