¹⁴ Then I broke ^(A)my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Warning Against Worldliness

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions^[a] are ^(A)at war within you?^{[b] 2} You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^(B)wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

¹⁴ But if you have bitter ^(A)jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

¹⁵ But if you ^(A)bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

⁷ And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ For the Sadducees ^(A)say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. ⁹ Then a great clamor arose, and some of ^(B)the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, ^(C)“We find nothing wrong in this man. What ^(D)if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” ¹⁰ And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into ^(E)the barracks.

¹⁰ And then many will fall away^[a] and ^(A)betray one another and hate one another.

⁹ So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. ^(A)What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.”

^7 (A)So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named ^(B)Favor, the other I named ^(C)Union. ^(D)And I tended the sheep.