¹⁶ For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, ^(A)except You go with us? So we ^(B)shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

⁸ Then Haman said to King Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; ^(A)their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king’s laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain.

² For they have ^(A)taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the ^(B)holy seed is ^(C)mixed with the peoples of those lands. Indeed, the hand of the leaders and rulers has been foremost in this ^[a]trespass.”

⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of ^(A)darkness into His marvelous light;

^14 (A)who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed ^(B)and purify for Himself ^(C)His own special people, zealous for good works.

¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Christ Our Peace

¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,