⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,^[a] in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.^(A)

¹⁵ yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today.^(A)

¹⁷ They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them.^(A)

⁶ For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.^(A)

⁷ “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.^(B)

¹⁰ Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord.^{(A) 11} Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord on that day and shall be my people, and I will dwell in your midst. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. ¹² The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem.^(B)