¹⁸ But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have:

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,^{(A) 15} and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.^{(B) 17} God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.^(C)

² But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.^(A)

¹³ We, however, will not boast beyond limits but will keep within the field that God has assigned to us, to reach out even as far as you. ¹⁴ For we were not overstepping our limits when we reached you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the good news^[a] of Christ.^{(A) 15} We do not boast beyond limits, that is, in the labors of others, but our hope is that, as your faith increases, our field among you may be greatly enlarged, ¹⁶ so that we may proclaim the good news^[b] in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in someone else’s field.