1. 9:23, 24. What is better than wisdom, power and wealth?
   Cf. also 1 Cor. 1:25-31; Phil. 3:8-11. What do you set most store by in the normal course of life?
2. Set down, on the hand, the characteristics mentioned here of the idols of the heathen and, on the other, the character of the living God.
3. What are the implications of 10:23, 24?
   Have you learnt to live by them? See 30:11 and cf. Prov. 3:5-7, 11, 12.

Notes

1. 9:25, 26. All these nations practiced circumcision, and Judah, despite the fact that her circumcision was ordained to mark a unique relationship with God, takes her place here between Egypt and Edom because her spiritually uncircumcised state (cf. 4:4; Rom. 2:28, 29) has rendered her physical circumcision no more meaningful than theirs.
2. 10:11. ‘Belongings’: a few hastily gathered possessions for immediate flight.
3. 10:21. ‘Shepherds’: see 2:8 and mg.; 3:15.