⁷ Someone might argue, “If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory,^(A) why am I still condemned as a sinner?”^(B)

⁴ Not at all! Let God be true,^(A) and every human being a liar.^(B) As it is written:

¹⁹ One of you will say to me:^(A) “Then why does God still blame us?^(B) For who is able to resist his will?”^{(C) 20} But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(D) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(E) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^[a](F)

²⁷ The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus,^(A) yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets^(B) that are read every Sabbath. ²⁸ Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed.^{(C) 29} When they had carried out all that was written about him,^(D) they took him down from the cross^(E) and laid him in a tomb.^(F)

Peter Disowns Jesus^(A)

⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

⁷¹ Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

⁷² He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”

⁷³ After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”

⁷⁴ Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. ⁷⁵ Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”^(B) And he went outside and wept bitterly.

³⁴ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”^(A)

¹⁰ Elisha answered, “Go and say to him, ‘You will certainly recover.’^(A) Nevertheless,^[a] the Lord has revealed to me that he will in fact die.” ¹¹ He stared at him with a fixed gaze until Hazael was embarrassed.^(B) Then the man of God began to weep.^(C)

¹² “Why is my lord weeping?” asked Hazael.

“Because I know the harm^(D) you will do to the Israelites,” he answered. “You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash^(E) their little children^(F) to the ground, and rip open^(G) their pregnant women.”

¹³ Hazael said, “How could your servant, a mere dog,^(H) accomplish such a feat?”

“The Lord has shown me that you will become king^(I) of Aram,” answered Elisha.

¹⁴ Then Hazael left Elisha and returned to his master. When Ben-Hadad asked, “What did Elisha say to you?” Hazael replied, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” ¹⁵ But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and spread it over the king’s face, so that he died.^(J) Then Hazael succeeded him as king.

²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge;^(A) and you, with the help of wicked men,^[a] put him to death by nailing him to the cross.^(B)