¹⁸ Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that this will happen? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.”^(A)

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”^(A)

³⁴ Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”^[a]

⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?”^(A)

¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already^[a] as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.^(A)

⁷ But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

²² Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”]]^[a]

² Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “Even if the Lord were to make windows in the sky, could such a thing happen?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it.”^(A)

The Sign of the Fleece

³⁶ Then Gideon said to God, “In order to see whether you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said, ³⁷ I am going to lay a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.”^{(A) 38} And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. ³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, but let me speak one more time; let me, please, make trial with the fleece just once more; let it be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew.”^{(B) 40} And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground there was dew.

²¹ But Moses said, “The people I am with number six hundred thousand on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month’! ²² Are there enough flocks and herds to slaughter for them? Are there enough fish in the sea to catch for them?”^{(A) 23} The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited?^[a] Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.”^(B)